The College Football Playoff can almost be treated as a popularity contest. The cool kids, i.e. the Power Five schools, have first dibs on the final four.
Meanwhile, the new kids or less popular crowd, i.e. the Group of Five schools, virtually have no shot to play for college football’s ultimate prize. College football analyst Rod Gilmore believes the Group of Five has no shot to make the playoff, even with a team like Cincinnati currently ranked No. 8 overall.
Gilmore pointed to the latest rankings where a two-loss Iowa State team jumped an idle and undefeated Cincinnati squad this week.
“There will never be a Group of Five team in the playoff,” Gilmore said on the broadcast of Penn State-Michigan State. “That was pretty clear when Iowa State jumped Cincinnati in the rankings….Just getting back to the rankings for a minute, Cincinnati was ahead of Iowa State. They’re a two loss team and Cincinnati is undefeated and the committee moved Iowa State ahead of them. That's really a statement of if you're a Power Five team and you have a conference title, you're going to be ahead of a Group of Five team. No matter whether you're undefeated or not...I guess for the committee, extra data matters sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. Cincinnati, it does and Iowa State, it doesn’t.”
Cincinnati dropped from No. 7 to No. 8 this week and does not play Tulsa in a regular season game due to COVID-19 concerns, but they’ll play them in the AAC championship game next week.
Despite Iowa State playing for a Big 12 title next week, they have two losses, including a loss in the opening weekend against the University of Louisiana, a non-Power Five team. They also lost to conference foe Oklahoma State.
Even if Iowa State loses next week and Cincinnati wins their conference and finishes 9-0, they would need a lot of help if they even have a hope to make the final four. Oklahoma, Iowa State’s opponent, would improve to 8-2 and they’re currently No. 11 overall. At that point, the committee would need to weigh if they deserve a higher ranking than an AAC champion in a hypothetical 9-0 Cincinnati squad.
Plus, No. 6 Florida would need to lose to Alabama in the SEC championship. Texas A&M, who’s No. 5, is idle this week and won’t play a conference championship game. In front of them are Ohio State and Clemson.
Ideally, Clemson losing would knock them out of the playoff race and give Cincinnati a leg up but even then, the Bearcats might need a surprising loss from Ohio State against Northwestern to plead their case.
No matter what argument is used, the Group of Five, particularly Cincinnati, have quite the hill to climb to make the tournament.
The College Football Playoff semi-finals are scheduled for Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. The College Football Playoff National Championship is scheduled for Jan. 11.
"five" - Google News
December 13, 2020 at 03:48AM
https://ift.tt/3nfWdOn
Rod Gilmore: Group of Five will 'never make the playoff' - 247Sports
"five" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YnPDf8
https://ift.tt/2SxXq6o
No comments:
Post a Comment