There's no question that the College Football Playoff selection committee has a difficult job.
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committee → be → job
where it's virtually impossible to please all interested parties
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it → please → parties
In the current format, just 12 college football teams reach the playoffs, which has become the ultimate sign of success or failure for a program's season.
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which → reach → season
Coaching changes are decided based on playoff appearances.
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changes → decide → appearances
Conference bragging rights, both in the public discourse and in deliberations, are determined based on playoff appearances.
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rights → determine → appearances
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners.
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page → contain → partners
If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may be compensated.
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News → sign → wager
This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.
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that → create → newsroom
Or a Power 4 school that feels like they missed out to allow a Group of 6 school to reach the tournament.
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school → feel → tournament
Conferences will advocate for more of their member teams to be included.
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more → advocate → teams
Group of 6 schools will argue that they deserve to be included after a good season, even if their schedules can't match up to top teams.
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schedules → argue → teams
It's a guarantee that their choices will lead to disagreement, debate, and some level of unhappiness.
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choices → lead → unhappiness
Especially because the rankings are based on human evaluation, and humans make mistakes, are biased, or have their own individual priorities and valuations.
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humans → base → priorities
Which is what makes the opacity of the committee's process and evaluation tools so frustrating.
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opacity → make → tools
For years, committee members have spoken about how they incorporate strength of schedule and resume into their deliberations and their top 25 poll.
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they → speak → deliberations
But there's little transparency as to how they determine the strength of schedule and resume.
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they → be → schedule
It's nice to say it, it's another to show your work.
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it → say → work
Are they creating their own metrics based on wins and losses against, say, AP ranked teams?
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they → create → teams
Or do they use more advanced, computer-driven analytics?
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they → use → analytics
Who knows?
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Who → know → ?
Well, the committee revealed recently that they're now adding another metric to help inform their discussions: strength of conference.
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they → reveal → conference
Oh good, more metrics with little transparency that will lead to more debate and disagreement.
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that → lead → debate
Heather Dinich from ESPN reported that the committee would now incorporate this new metric to help separate teams within the league.
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committee → report → league
"The CFP selection committee will incorporate another data point in late November that helps determine the strength of each conference based on the schedule strength of each team in its league,' she posted on X. "It will help separate teams in the SAME LEAGUE with similar records based on the strength of their conference opponents.
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It → incorporate → opponents
(Ex: PSU doesn’t play Oregon, Ohio State or IU)
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PSU → play → Oregon
It will also help separate teams with comparable records in different conferences based on how tough their league opponents were."
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opponents → help → conferences
But what's it based on?
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it → base → what
How are they evaluating which teams have faced the "strongest" conference opponents?
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teams → evaluate → opponents
How do they determine how to separate teams with comparable records in different conferences?
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they → determine → conferences
Again, the questions that the committee wants answers to, evaluating different schedules and conferences, are all valuable and important debates.
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committee → want → schedules
The issue is that there's no transparency on how they're going to do it.
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they → be → it
Some fans look at wins and losses or head-to-head matchups.
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fans → look → head
Some like to use "ranked wins" or ranked games, though those can often be misleading based on when those games happen.
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games → like → wins
For example, Texas A&M counts as a ranked win for LSU, even though it's clear the Aggies are far from a top 25 team.
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Aggies → count → team
Others like to use analytics-based systems that are more objective and less biased toward a specific school or conference.
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that → like → school
That should be the preference; remove bias, evaluate teams objectively, combine metrics to find the "best" teams that fit the criteria and limit the amount of campaigning and importance of the typically awful AP Poll.
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that → remove → Poll
We'll find out in a few months.
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We → find → months
The Aporia
