Instead of the College Football Playoff Committee, why don’t they just change their name to the College Football Playoff Cartel for the Privileged and Powerful?
At least then determined and diligent men like UCF coach Scott Frost and his unbeaten Knights would understand that this unfair and inequitable system is not designed for teams like them. They could then come to grips with the fact that there is no room at the inn, no seat on the bus, no opportunity for them to reach the pinnacle of their sport because they are not a member of the Power 5 conferences’ privileged class.
The Knights, even though they are one of the most dominant teams in the nation, are shamefully ranked No. 18 in the latest College Football Playoff ranking — the same as they were ranked last week despite the fact that several teams ahead of them lost and UCF won a tough road game against a good SMU team. UCF athletics director Danny White told us a few days ago that his team’s ranking is an insult to what the Knights have accomplished this season.
“Look at the games we’ve won and how we’ve looked as we’ve won them,” White said. “To have multiple two-loss teams ranked ahead of us is disrespectful to us and our conference.”
What’s even more disrespectful is CFB Playoff Committee Chairman Kirby Hocutt taking us for a bunch of fools when he claims UCF’s “strength of schedule” is the reason for their low ranking. Except UCF’s strength of schedule is almost exactly the same as fellow unbeaten Wisconsin, which is ranked No. 8 in the poll.
That’s right, UCF is the highest-scoring team in the nation and has essentially played the same schedule as Wisconsin — and beaten its opponents more decisively than Wisconsin — and yet UCF is ranked 10 spots below the Badgers.
Why? Power 5 politics and privilege, that’s why. College football continues to run the most archaic, asinine, exclusionary system in all of sports. Because the Badgers were lucky enough to be around a century ago when the major conferences were formed, they will get to chance to play for a national championship if they go unbeaten whereas UCF won’t.
Good grief, can you imagine if the rest of American society was as antiquated and discriminatory as college football? … Sorry, ladies, you don’t get the same rights as men because you weren’t allowed to vote 100 years ago.
It’s an absolute joke that there are eight — EIGHT! — two-loss Power Five teams ranked ahead of UCF. How is it that the two-loss Virginia Tech Hokies — beaten by double digits in the only two games they’ve played against ranked opponents — can be ranked ahead of UCF? Puh-leeze! The Knights are not only unbeaten, but they destroyed the only ranked team on their schedule (Memphis) 40-13.
Let’s face it, for schools like UCF, the relatively new College Football Playoff system is really no different from the old BCS (Bogus Cartel System). It’s simply the same old song with different voices singing it. Today, it’s current AD White talking about being disrespected. A decade ago, it was former UCF AD Steve Orsini.
“Every sport in the NCAA except football is built on the idea of inclusion,” Orsini told me a dozen years ago. “Football has been exclusionary. I think all anybody wants here is a fair shot.”
But that’s not the way college football works. As crooked and corrupt as college basketball is, at least it’s a sport that doesn’t discriminate. If college basketball were like college football, Villanova would have never upset Georgetown for the national title because the Wildcats would have never been allowed in the tournament. They would have been relegated to playing Gonzaga in the first round of the CBI.
Sadly, Cinderella continues to be black-balled by college football.
She’s back at home washing the dishes, scrubbing the floors and turning down the beds so her Power 5 stepsisters can get ready for their private and privileged postseason ball.
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