Has the expansion of the CFP devalued conference championship games?
The expansion of the CFP has sparked debate over the importance of conference championship games.
The College Football Playoff committee was tasked with choosing from Alabama, Notre Dame and Miami for the final two at-large bids in the 12-team bracket on Sunday, Dec. 7.
The committee ultimately landed on Alabama at No. 9 — despite the Crimson Tide getting manhandled by No. 3 Georgia in the SEC Championship — and Miami at No. 10. The Hurricanes jumped No. 10 Notre Dame in the final rankings, despite ranking behind the Fighting Irish in every prior iteration of the CFP top 25 and both teams being idle during conference championship weekend.
CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek, the athletic director at Arkansas, explained the committee’s thought process for moving Notre Dame out of the CFP picture. Notre Dame lost to Miami in Week 1, which ultimately was the deciding factor, although Hunter Yurachek said there was much debate.
“We felt like the way BYU performed in their championship game, a second loss to Texas Tech in a similar fashion, was worthy of Miami moving ahead of them in the rankings,” Yurachek said. “And once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, then we had that side-by-side comparison that everyone had been hungry for with Notre Dame and Miami.
“You look at those two teams on paper, and they’re almost equal in their schedule strength, their common opponents, their results against their common opponents. But their one metric we had to fall back on again was the head-to-head.”
Yurachek also said Miami’s inclusion in the CFP wasn’t due to the ACC potentially being left out of the bracket after Duke won the conference.
Alabama didn’t move down in the rankings after its disappointing performance in a 28-7 loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship game. Yurachek also explained the committee’s process with the Crimson Tide’s ranking.
“Felt like in the end, regardless of Alabama’s performance yesterday, their body of work in those first 12 games where they had probably the best win arguably this season, winning at Georgia, having a win against Vanderbilt, win against Tennessee as well,” Yurachek said. “Their strength of schedule was the highest in the top 11 and felt like in spite of their performance yesterday in the conference championship, they deserved to stay in that nine spot.”
Indiana earned the top spot in the bracket after defeating No. 1 Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten Conference Championship. Georgia came in at No. 3 after taking down Alabama for the SEC title, while Ohio State swapped with Indiana to No. 2 in the final bracket. Texas Tech, the Big 12 champions, was ranked No. 4.
The 12-team bracket was rounded out by No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Mississippi, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Alabama, No. 10 Miami, No. 11 Tulane and No. 12 James Madison.
Yurachek ended the interview explaining why Texas A&M was behind Mississippi, although the two SEC programs both have 11-1 records. The decision could be meaningful, given the Rebels face Tulane in the first round as opposed to the Aggies hosting Miami.
“We looked at those 5-8 corridor of teams that were there, all of them did not play,” Yurachek said. “We did not see a reason to move any of those teams based on anything that happened in the conference championship games this weekend.”
