Wake Forest and Boise State Deserve Credit for What the CFP Says It Values

The College Football Playoff committee can deny it, but they’re just not that into backup quarterbacks. Second-string signal-callers haven’t been the committee’s type since 2023, when an undefeated Florida State team sans Jordan Travis was famously snubbed from the playoff because the committee feared what might happen to a Seminoles team led by a backup QB while conveniently ignoring what had actually happened on the field.

The Travis rule was born that day, and, despite just one member of the 2023–24 committee holding over to ’26–27, the principle has lingered. The logic was applied last week in the committee’s initial rankings to the Ohio State Buckeyes, who toiled through a loss to USC in freshman signal-caller Luke Fahey’s first start with Julian Sayin sidelined.

“They didn’t look like the same Ohio State team this past weekend,” committee chair Hunter Yurachek said last week, explaining the Buckeyes’ ranking of No. 12, just outside the playoff after automatic berths.

Yurachek mentioned some concerns with the Ohio State defense—concerns that were further validated this week—but the Buckeyes didn’t look the same to the committee largely because they didn’t trust what might continue to happen to the program’s offense with Fahey under center.

But what happens when such logic works in reverse? If the committee is seemingly going to penalize a team for playing poorly with a backup quarterback, shouldn’t it also reward a team for continuing to play well with a second-stringer under center?

We’re about to find out. Two teams—and two backup quarterbacks—flipped the committee’s backup QB logic upside down with stellar play in Week 10. And the stakes were high for both programs.

Wake Forest, already snubbed by the committee at 16 because of a weaker strength of schedule, had to turn to backup passer Steele Pizzella, who had attempted just one pass in his collegiate career, after starter Gio Lopez suffered a leg injury during the Demon Deacons’ win over Virginia.

Yes, it was FCS Merrimack on the other side of the line of scrimmage against Wake Forest. Yes, the Demon Deacons were nearly 50-point favorites with a backup QB. But Jake Dickert’s squad, thanks to 432 yards and four total touchdowns by Pizzella, made the 46.5-point line look small in a 77–0 evisceration of the Warriors.

It sure looked like the same Wake Forest team, which obliterated opponents by a combined margin of 187–31 in October, with Pizzella at QB.

Wake Forest backup quarterback Steele Pizzella led the Demon Deacons to a 77–0 win over Merrimack. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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And the Demon Deacons weren’t the only college football train kept smoothly on the tracks sans a starter under center.

Boise State, on thin ice as the top Group of 6 team ranked 25th thanks in part to a leaky defense—and the questionable status of starter Maddux Madsen—turned to Max Cutforth for his fourth career start. Cutforth had fired three touchdown passes to lead a thrilling comeback against Texas State after Madsen exited the game the prior week.

The Broncos defense surrendered 513 yards and 38 points to the Rams. It didn’t matter, as Cutforth accounted for five total touchdowns and Boise State scored its most points in a road game in 74 years, defeating Colorado State 64–38.

Boise State didn’t just look the same, it scored the most points in a game this season as the offense hummed without Madsen.

Never mind that both Wake Forest’s Lopez and Boise State’s Madsen are expected to return to action next week—both the Demon Deacons and Broncos proved that they’re trustworthy operations to back when the starter goes down. That should matter even more in a year where we’ve seen plenty of injuries at the QB position.

So if the committee truly wants to factor in backup QB play into its evaluations of teams, the Demon Deacons and Broncos should be rewarded come Tuesday night.

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