College football playoff system is a farce -- just the BCS with two more teams

... CFP has Ohio State bias

When the current college football playoff [CFP] system was created, many extolled its virtues, saying that it was almost perfect, correcting all of the deficiencies of the previous BCS [Bowl Championship Series]. The truth is that the current system has as many problems as the previous one.

The only saving grace for CFP is that it has four teams, so there are fewer complaints. Other than that, it is BCS redux.

It had problems in its first year, 2014, when it snubbed the previous number 3 team, TCU. This year, there were questions about the process, though this college football season had perhaps the weakest teams in recent memory.

Background of 2016

I believe that this season has demonstrated one of the problems that the NFL has faced. Going back to former commissioner, the late Pete Rozelle, the word is parity. This season, there is not one strong conference in the country.

In honesty, even the SEC, previously the premier conference, is woeful. Other than Alabama, which may be suspect too since it really played no one outside the conference [USC 1-3 early], who is any good? The Eastern Champ, Florida, which the Tide decimated 54-16 in the title game last week? What about LSU, previously a tough competitor? Lackluster at best.

In Jeff Sagarin's power rankings, the SEC has only one team in the top ten, Alabama, and only two in the second ten, LSU at 12 and Auburn at 14. Not exactly the premier 2016 conference.

However, the truth is that no other conference is good either, including the Big Ten and the PAC-12.

Selection process

Nevertheless, let's go back to the selection process for the final four. Here are the four criteria that the CFP lists on its website, with the first one supposed to predominate over the others.

1. Championships won;

2. Strength of schedule;

3. Head-to-head competition;

4. Comparative outcomes of common opponents.

Using these, I am going to make an argument that Penn State deserved to be in the top four, not Ohio State. While a PSU grad, I believe that OSU has a better team than PSU, as does Michigan. Nevertheless, based on the CFP criteria, Penn State could make a better argument for a spot than the Buckeyes -- and this is because of Number 1 -- championships. However, I have reservations about Penn State that I will list below.

Conferences

Of the five power conferences, the SEC (Alabama, number 1), the ACC (Clemson, number 2), and PAC-12 (Washington, number 4) are all represented by their champions. That is the major criteria that the CFP has used, and it emphasizes that in its criteria.

Not only did Ohio State not win its conference, it did not even reach the title game. Losing a title game if a team is undefeated can be overlooked in this system, but not even making it at all is a major strike against Ohio State. They sat home last weekend and still made the top four, which reeks of politics that still pervades college football.

When combined with Ohio State's loss to Penn State in the regular season, the Buckeyes' only loss, and since Number 3 is Head to Head Competition, the Buckeyes should have been eliminated by those two criteria.

Instead, they still remained ahead of Washington, the PAC-12 champ that also had only one loss on its playoff resume. No way they should have been ahead of Washington, even with the few points in the next area.

Strength of schedule

Ohio State does have one strength that no one else in the Big Ten does. It actually played one good team outside the conference and beat it. That was Oklahoma, whom they defeated early in the season and was ranked in the top 10 of Sagarin's rankings.

Penn State had a cupcake schedule outside of OSU and Michigan. They also lost to Pitt, which despite beating undefeated Clemson, also lost four games. At one point in the late season, Penn State had no one in Sagarin's top 25 other than OSU and Michigan.

Washington also had a cupcake schedule outside the PAC-12, and it lost to USC, which has three losses, though those were in the early season.

Ohio State bias

I have some recommendations for the CFP committee: refrain from talking to any conference commissioners or ADs during the football season. That will prevent some of them, like Big Ten's Jim Delany, from having an outsized influence on the selection process.

For instance, look at the bias in 2014, the first year. In that season, the top four late in the season were these in this order: Alabama, Oregon, TCU, and Florida State. The next Saturday, TCU defeated Iowa State, 55-3, while number 5, Ohio State, ran up the score on Wisconsin and won 59-0. Suddenly, Ohio State, which had lost to Va. Tech in the second game of the season by two touchdowns, was in the top four and TCU was out. TCU also had one loss, by three points, to Baylor.

Now, the Buckeyes went on to win the 2014 national title by upsetting Alabama in the semifinals and then Oregon in the title game. That does not mean that the process was fair. It was not, but OSU has more pull in the CFP than anyone in the country.

Rick Gosselin Advice to CFP

"Forget about posting any criteria on your web site. Don't tell us conference championships matter. Don't tell us conference championship games matter. Don't tell us that head-to-head matchups matter. Don't provide the schools a road map that leads to no where. Then you don't have to try to explain the inexplicable."

Rick Gosselin, sports columnist and beat reporter for Dallas Cowboys for the The Dallas Morning News