If you believe there aren’t enough three-loss SEC teams in the College Football Playoff (CFP), today is a good day for you.
According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, “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. It will help separate teams in the SAME LEAGUE with similar records based on the strength of their conference opponents. (Ex: PSU doesn’t play Oregon, Ohio State, or IU) It will also help separate teams with comparable records in different conferences based on how tough their league opponents were.”
As Dinich explains, “This is an ‘inside baseball’ type stat that won’t trump quality wins, schedule strength and record strength and what the committee sees on film. But it will put a number to answer the question: how tough is the daily grind in each league? It’s not even equal within them.”
The “daily grind” is definitely new.
But of course, that stat is already measured by strength of schedule, making it completely unnecessary. Now, under this new rule, the committee will factor in other teams’ strength of schedule to evaluate a particular team.
The new data point is a massive win for the SEC, which consistently has the most teams in the top 25. Specifically, the rule will benefit two- and three-loss SEC teams, whose values will now be artificially inflated simply because of the conference they play in.
This will please not only the SEC, but also ESPN, the official broadcaster of the SEC and holder of the broadcast rights to nearly all CFP games.
Until now, most fans have believed teams are evaluated based on their individual merits. Now, with this new data point, teams will be valued based on the “daily grind” of their respective conference.
But what does that really have to do with anything?
Does Alabama being good make Vanderbilt better? Does Georgia being good make Oklahoma better?
It’s nonsensical.
If anything, the new rule will likely bring about the 24-team playoff much sooner than expected, as other conferences outside the SEC are forced to band together to give their teams a fair shot at being included in the CFP.