Why Florida's AD Hates Committee-Picked College Football Playoff Teams

There has to be a better way of picking what college football teams get into the playoff, other than having some people in a room, Florida's athletic director has said.

Picking the College Football Playoff by committee doesn't produce the best results, according to one SEC athletic director. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

As the future of the College Football Playoff continues to be the talking point of the offseason, one decision maker in the SEC wonders whether the process needs a selection committee at all.

“A committee is not ideal to choose a postseason,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said, via Yahoo Sports. 

He added: “I question whether it is appropriate for college football.”

Many have questioned it, usually around selection time when their decisions and selection criteria are the subject of intense debate, but it’s been the way playoff teams have been chosen ever since the debut of the CFP format a decade ago.

While many collegiate sports tournaments are designed on a committee basis, Stricklin said that football should be approached differently, because, well, it’s different.

There are far fewer games played on a yearly basis in football compared to other sports, and it produces less hard data for a committee to use in their judgments.

Stricklin has first-hand experience with the College Football Playoff selection committee, serving as a member from 2018 to 2021.

Members usually serve anywhere from two to four years and generally include one active athletic director from each power conference, adding former coaches, players, and administrators to its ranks.

It releases its own Top 25 rankings during the second half of the season and seeds the official playoff bracket using a variety of data points.

Previous selection committees have been criticized for their controversial seedings, including two years ago, when Florida State became the first undefeated power conference champion to not be included in the national playoff.

For decades, college football crowned a national champion through media and coaches rankings until 1998, when the BCS used a computer formula to determine the two best teams and have them play an independent national championship game.

Naturally, that came with its own controversies, resulting in the formation of the first College Football Playoff, moving away from using computers and having actual people, those with ostensible knowledge of the game, select the teams.

But that system resulted in its own little scandals, culminating in the opinion shared by Florida’s athletic director, and one that seems to be gaining some traction around the sport.

(Yahoo)

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