With the 2024 college football season heading down the home stretch, the College Football Playoff committee’s rankings decisions are getting watched more closely by the way. And one who took notice was Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard, who had some interesting comments on X on Wednesday afternoon.
Pollard shared a quote from College Football Playoff chair Warde Manuel, commenting on the decision to give Boise State the final bye, given their ranking ahead of any team in the Big 12. And as Pollard goes on to speculate, the decision to put Boise State at No. 4, instead of at No. 12, where Arizona State was ranked in the latest Playoff bracket, was driven more by the committee’s speculation on what’s to come in the next couple of weeks.
Basically, if Ohio State beats Michigan this weekend, they’ll play Oregon for the Big Ten Championship. The Big Ten Champion will obviously receive a bye in the College Football Playoff. So what Pollard is suggestion is that the committee believes Ohio State will beat Michigan, and then is likely to beat Oregon, which would give the Buckeyes the bye, and likely make Oregon the No. 5 seed in the Playoff. And if Boise State does not get a bye, as a Top 4 conference champion, they would end up as the No. 12 seed in the Playoff.
What would that mean? A re-match with an Oregon team they lost to early in the season.
Of course, the committee has no business playing that game, which is more about the TV networks than the Playoff itself. But ask anyone who has been around the College Football Playoff for the last 10 years (Gary Patterson and TCU in 2014 come to mind), and you’ll find plenty of folks skeptical about how the committee truly operates.
For the record, Boise State has a Strength of Schedule of 81, well below any Big 12 team that is in the hunt. That’s supposed to be a key component for the committee. And when it comes to common opponents, Wyoming just played Boise State 17-13. Meantime, Arizona State blasted Wyoming 48-7 (in Tempe) and BYU beat them 34-14 (at Wyoming).
Pollard is right to be skeptical based on the committee’s inconsistency and history. Let’s see what happens come next week.
