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Kirby Smart makes his issues with the College Football Playoff committee clear

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Kirby Smart makes his issues with the College Football Playoff committee clear

âThatâs a tough one. Two-time national champ, back-to-back, go undefeated and lose one and youâre out,â Smart said. âItâs funny because people say the precedentâs been set and you canât play in that game and slide out of the playoffs. And I said, oh, yes you can. It happened. It was only a four-team playoff, but it did happen, so it makes it tough.â

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MontanaDawg

Great article this morning in The Athletic by Seth Emerson and Matt Baker about lessons learned and facts from what the FCS 24-team playoffs can teach us...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7313239/2026/05/28/college-football-playoff-expansion-24-fcs/

Beachwagon

Here's today's scoop.. Bad news. The BIG Ten flipped the field on the SEC. The universities need to get together, fire the idiot SEC president who has taken the conference from 100 to zero during his tenure, and move the SEC HQ out of Birmingham where they are basically run out of the Athletic Department in Tuscaloosa. The Big Ten has shaped the NCAA with numbers and money to cater to their resources and vision. SEC has now lost and will not recover. Yes, they will continue to be superior to the ACC but will not see many Natties in the future.

Beachwagon

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/833025#Comment_833025

MontanaDawg, not much knowledge to be gained from a second kick from a mule.

ColoradoSkiDawg

2023 was all about the Michigan Athletic Director, who headed the playoff committee, clearing the field for Mihigan's title run.

MontanaDawg

@Beachwagon…yeah, the expanded playoff mule has been debated ad nauseum, but this article is the first one I've read that lays out the facts and truths from experience. A refreshing read for once instead of regurgitating the same tired old reasons against expansion. Actually the arguments against FBS expansion are really just excuses, not real reasons. People just don't generally like change. The FBS playoffs last season broke TV viewer ratings, despite the fact many fans have been swearing off the game.

Yeah right. True college football fans aren't going to give up their drug of choice in the Fall. Those same folks might be the ones whining about the NFL adding more playoff teams, yet the ratings keep going up.

DawgfromILM

The CFP selection committee has lost credibility because its decisions too often look biased, inconsistent, and disconnected from real strength of schedule. The committee says strength of schedule matters, but too often its rankings suggest that avoiding losses matters more than playing serious opponents. If teams are punished for playing difficult schedules, they will stop playing difficult schedules. If conference championship games create risk without sufficient reward, schools will eventually question their value. And if the committee cannot clearly explain why one résumé matters more than another, fans are going to assume the process is driven by bias, brand protection, politics, or simple incompetence.

College football does not just need a different group of people in the room. It needs a better structure.

Maybe the answer is a two-layer system: an anonymous football-evaluation panel that ranks teams on merit, insulated from politics and brand pressure, reporting to a rotating oversight committee that reviews the process for consistency, transparency, and conflicts of interest. Let the football people evaluate the teams. Let the oversight committee audit the process, police conflicts, and explain the final decisions. That would not eliminate every argument, but it would make the system harder to manipulate and easier to trust.

Notre Dame also has to be part of that conversation.

The Irish cannot keep claiming independent privilege while demanding equal playoff access. If Notre Dame wants full consideration for the College Football Playoff, then it should join a conference and compete under the same rules, risks, and championship-game obligations as everyone else. Conference teams have to survive a league schedule, deal with conference tiebreakers, and often play an extra championship game that can either strengthen or damage their playoff case. Notre Dame avoids that final risk while still expecting equal treatment from the committee.