The first season with a new playoff system is going to create a fresh feel in and around college football. What are some of the aspects of this new playoff format that are worth knowing? Let’s take a brief look at how college football is trying to build upon the old Bowl Championship Series.
1. The Selection Committee Won’t Release Rankings Until The Last Week Of October
The committee in charge of the rankings that will decide the four teams in this playoff won’t release its initial rankings until the end of October. Why is this important? The committee won’t be making public evaluations in September. It will sit back and assess the various teams, enabling for two months in which the games can decide the issue. Teams won’t go into September worrying too much about the margin of victory or other things beyond winning games. They can just focus on the bottom line and work their way into the season. This should also reduce the amount of attention that’s given to preseason polls, which have consistently been a source of a lot of debate and controversy in college football. It will be interesting to see how the pressure on teams changes with each month during the season.
2. There Is A Selection Committee In The First Place
There will be various sources of information that will go into the decision to pick four playoff teams, but the biggest news is simply that there will be a selection committee to handle the task at the end. The Bowl Championship Series depended on poll votes and computer formulas. Human beings indirectly selected two teams for a championship game, but not directly, sitting in a room and arriving at a decision after poring over facts. The NCAA tournament is selected by a committee, so college football has moved closer to an NCAA tournament model and become more like college basketball. A lot of people are very interested in how this new and basic change to college football’s postseason is going to change the way teams are selected and how they arrange their schedules in the future, beyond the 2014 season.
3. Two Semifinal Games, Followed By A Championship Game
The Bowl Championship Series was a one-game championship, basically a bowl game played on its own just like all the other bowls. The only difference was that it was for the national title and not some empty prize. Now, under the playoff system, the national championship game is going to be the product of two semifinal game winners, who will meet roughly one week after the semifinal games are played. The national championship game will therefore be played by teams who are coming off a game. The title game had been a matchup of teams that were coming off a one-month layoff. With this change, you might see the teams respond differently to the game. You’ll probably see fewer nerves and less rust. You’ll probably see a higher quality of play. Injuries that might emerge in a semifinal game, though, could impact the title game.
