The inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee poll has been met with significant backlash, fueling calls to abolish the current system due to perceived flaws and questionable decisions. Critics point to inconsistencies in ranking philosophy and an overreliance on preseason polls as major issues.
The controversy intensified with the initial rankings, which placed Alabama at No. 5 and Kentucky at No. 6. This positioning has been particularly scrutinized, with arguments that Alabama's resume does not warrant such a high ranking, especially considering its losses. UCLA, for example, is ranked No. 8 despite being the only undefeated team in the Big Ten or SEC.
Further fueling the debate are the explanations provided by committee members, often athletic directors, whose justifications have been described as contradictory and illogical. One example cited is the reasoning for Alabama's ranking over Tennessee, where a committee member discussed "quality wins" and "quality losses." However, the wins cited for Alabama include victories over unranked Mississippi State and a South Carolina team with multiple losses, and a Kentucky team that the committee itself ranked highly.
Analytics suggest a potential bias favoring the SEC. A chart created by Bill Connelly, using a blend of resume and predictive metrics, produced a different order of top teams, with several SEC teams appearing higher in the committee's rankings than in the analytical model. On average, SEC teams were rated nearly three spots higher by human voters compared to the analytical rankings, leading to accusations that the conference's perceived strength is influencing the committee's decisions.
This perceived overrating of SEC teams, critics argue, undermines the credibility of the selection process. The committee's reliance on subjective criteria and the conference's self-proclaimed status as the toughest league are seen as factors that consistently inflate SEC teams' rankings, regardless of on-field results. This has led to a situation where teams might be rewarded for playing a difficult schedule within the SEC, even if they have multiple losses, while teams from other conferences could face harsher penalties for similar records.
Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti expressed frustration, suggesting that committee members are "given instructions on what to say and follow the company line." The article proposes that the entire system needs to be scrapped and rethought, emphasizing that results must ultimately matter in determining playoff berths.