Daric Clemens is a senior journalism news major and is a columnist for The Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Ball State making the College Football Playoffs is a long shot, of course. But maybe it is a possibility in the future with an expansion to the playoff format, just maybe. Cardinal fans can dream, right?
Whichever way it may unfold, the College Football Playoff needs to leave the four-team concept in the past and give the best eight teams in the country an opportunity to fight for the National Championship.
In 2014, the College Football Playoff took place of the Bowl Championship Series, which was the right thing to do to make the ending of the college football season more appealing and give a fairer opportunity for four teams to play in a two-game tournament setup.
However, the five years with it being implemented has exposed some of the flaws the system has. Narrowing down the top teams in the nation to just four teams can be challenging for the 13-member committee and has led to some controversy.
In 2017, there were teams hanging right outside the last four. Ohio State was one, as it sat at the fifth spot after winning the Big Ten Championship game. Alabama was able to find themselves in the fourth spot without even making it to its conference championship game. Wisconsin also was left feeling bitter as it was ultimately punished for making their conference championship game and failed to win, but it was the Badgers' only loss of the season.
Central Florida also got the shaft in the 2018 CFP after finishing its second straight undefeated season. However, the committee didn’t find it to be a legit contender because of its lack of “tough” opponents on the schedule, and they were ranked the eighth-best team in the nation.
Do I think these teams should’ve been in the final four? No, but they did deserve a chance to compete and make their case to be the best team standing in January. This is why moving to an eight-team playoff would be the best bet to clear up some of the controversy the committee is faced with each season.
Selecting the best teams in college football is a subjective topic, as everyone has their own opinions on who is the best, especially because obviously not every school can play each other, so a lot of times teams are compared against each other by the way they competed against a totally different team.
Also, there is no set rule on the requirements you have to complete in a season to be in the running to be selected. This has been a problem, as the committee hasn’t really found a legit and stable way to determine each team's rank consistently. One year, a conference championship victory might hold heavy weight, but others years, it might be based on mostly reputation, which was the case with Alabama in 2017. People thought the Tide didn’t do enough to be in the playoffs. The committee thought otherwise. Granted, the committee was right, as Alabama went on to win the championship.
The committee also has its “favorites,” as some conferences such as the Southeastern Conference usually have more value when it comes down to it because of the prominence they have maintained throughout on a consistent basis.
An expansion will limit these problems, as more flexibility will be available for the committee. It would be an opportunity to see teams go at it that we typically don’t see because of the differences in conferences.
There would be more money to be made because in the first round, the highest-ranked schools could possibly play an extra game on their home turf, so there is still an advantage of being a top-four team.
Some say the eighth-ranked team would never have a shot at beating the No. 1 team, and they might be right, but they deserve a chance to go to battle and see where they actually stand. This won’t completely fix everything, but it would be a step in the right direction to more equal opportunity for each respective team.
Contact Daric Clemens with comments at diclemens@bsu.edu or on Twitter @DaricClemens.
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