The final installment of the lies within the College Football Playoff committee focusses on the treatment of the non power five conference teams. Under the new rules set forth in determining the teams that get to play for the College Football Playoff, there is a special clause that is reserved for teams that do not play in either the Big Ten, SEC, PAC 12, Big XII, or ACC conferences. These teams are referred to the group of five teams with the aforementioned conferences having teams referred to as power five teams. Teams in power five conferences receive preferential treatment because their conferences top to bottom have better teams and more talent. Every single national champion since 1984 has been a team in a power five conference. The last team to win being BYU in 1984 out of the Mountain West conference. Now yes, there were teams such as Penn State who won championships more recently as an independent team but that is not being considered because they now belong to a power five conference. But wait, you may ask about Notre Dame since they won a national championship in 1988 and are still an independent team. Why do I not count them as a non power five national champion? What special clause would be reserved for those who are not in power five conferences and does Notre Dame receive?

To answer that question, the bias of the committee is incredibly apparent in their view of what a non power five team is. Under the College Football Playoff (CFP), there are six top tier bowls known as the New Year’s Six bowls. The bowls are: the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and the Peach Bowl Two of the NY6 are the playoff semi finals, the other four are rewards for a well played season. The power five conferences though, have an advantage. Each of the power five teams has a bowl tie in that guarantees their champion a birth in a NY6 bowl. The other five conferences have a combined, zero bowl tie ins. Under the new rules, the committee graciously allocated one bid for all the teams in the other five conferences. They rule that the highest ranked team among all of those in the group of conferences gets to go to one of the big money bowl games. To make it harder yet for these teams, good old Notre Dame comes in. Everyone who has even a tiny bit of college football knowledge knows that Notre Dame is considered one of the great college football giants. And, because they consider themselves to be an independent team (although they signed a deal with the ACC stipulating that they must play at least six games against ACC teams) the rule explicitly states the highest ranked non power five, or Notre Dame team gets to play. Now is not that just fair?

To put it lightly, no it is not fair. Teams like UCF, who went 13-0, with more wins against ranked teams than Alabama, had no chance to play for a national championship because they are a non power five team. What did UCF do in their bowl game, the Peach Bowl against 7th ranked Auburn? (Auburn also finished third in their conference but because the SEC has a tie in to a bowl game and Alabama and Georgia were in the playoffs they got to go) UCF “upset” them to go 14-0. Who did Auburn beat again? Oh yeah, Georgia and Alabama. But the committee is right, because UCF is from a non power five conference they do not deserve the chance to play for a national title because they are an inferior team since their conference is weaker top to bottom than a power five conference.

Why do these bowls matter so much though? Some fans believe they are just glorified exhibition games. In the next blog, the topic of bowl game money will be discussed and the division between power five and group of five teams will be examined further.

The biggest lie the CFP committee tells, is that every year, every team has a chance to win a national championship. Congrats to the 2018 National Champion UCF Golden Knights.