Big Ten football championship - Undefeated UCF makes strong case for expanding College Football Playoff
Undefeated UCF makes strong case for expanding College Football Playoff
No. 14 UCF has won all 11 of its football games this autumn, but there are multiple clues in that statement to indicate it has not been a perfect season in Central Florida.
The Knights have played one fewer game than other teams in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, and they had to scramble to not miss two because their September was interrupted by Hurricane Irma. That storm caused the cancelling of two games, the rescheduling of an essential American Athletic Conference game and the last-second arrangement of another so the Knights could play 11 times. They have continued without an open week since their season was relaunched with a 38-10 victory on Sept. 23 at Maryland. And still they win.
“We have a heck of a football team, and the reason we do is we have great kids that work very hard,” UCF athletic director Danny White told Sporting News. “And I don’t think it’s being respected enough by the CFP committee.”
Oh, yeah that was your other clue: No. 14. If ever there was a year in which the ability to win every game, to excel in most of them, should be respected and elevated to a higher plane in these rankings, this is it.
The No. 1 team in the rankings, Clemson, lost to a 4-8 Syracuse team. No. 3 Oklahoma, playing Saturday in the Big 12 Championship, lost to 7-5 Iowa State. No. 7 Miami, playing the Tigers Saturday in the ACC Championship, lost to 5-7 Pitt. Ohio State, No. 8 and playing Saturday in the Big Ten Championship, lost by 31 points to 7-5 Iowa.
UCF is 11-0 and ranked behind 13 other teams by the College Football Playoff committee.
Even though this season is offering definitive proof that a four-team playoff is too restrictive, that not all the teams with the potential to win a game or the title will be included, UCF would be on the outside of even an eight-team field unless a spot were guaranteed to the best Group of Five program.
“We’ve landed in a place of extreme subjectivity in the way we’re ranking for the CFP,” White said. “This, to me, feels like it’s changed: A bad loss used to mean an awful lot. I don’t think that’s healthy for the sport.”
White believes there are similarities in the profiles of this year's Knights and the Baylor and TCU teams that were offered much more respect in advance of championship Saturday in 2014; but those teams were ranked in the top six, probably because they were from Power Five conferences.
Whether that Georgia Tech game would have made an enormous difference in UCF’s ranking isn’t clear. The Yellow Jackets might have ruined that undefeated season. And they didn’t have the best year themselves.
It was clear the game could not have been played, though. The forecasts for Irma were so daunting that many of the players on the team were compelled to leave campus to return home to help their families prepare for the storm and/or evacuate. Many athletes didn’t return until two or three days before the game was scheduled to be played. White was concerned about the potential for injuries and other concerns for a team that had no chance to prepare.
But UCF’s record includes a 40-13 demolition of No. 20 Memphis, a 31-21 win on the road at Navy and that comfortable road victory at Big Ten member Maryland. The chance to play another game against a Power Five opponent, Georgia Tech, was ruined because of evacuations in advance of Irma.
“I think the issue was, our best wins are within our conference,” White said. “But the conference deserves more respect. Winning at Navy is hard. They had the nation’s longest home winning streak before we won there. Beating Memphis the way we did is not an easy thing to do.”
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Beating Memphis again won’t be easy, either. The Knights play the Tigers at noon Saturday in the AAC championship at Spectrum Stadium in Orlando. White made it clear he has tremendous respect for the Tigers, who are 10-1 including a victory over UCLA and a loss only to the Knights.
UCF is good enough to win a game if it were presented the chance to make the College Football Playoff– something that is obviously true because it hasn’t taken a great team to knock off several of those in serious contention.
The current structure of the playoff will not provide that chance, nor will the current mentality of the the selection committee in charge of the four spots that are available.
"Teams like ours should have the opportunity to compete for a national championship," White said. “Expanding the playoff to eight teams would be a really healthy thing to do.”
It would be the right thing, also.
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