Author Topic: College Football Playoff: What to expect from committee’s first rankings  (Read 2879 times)

Offline Sybeck1

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For the first time in the 145 years of college football, a 12-member playoff selection committee has set to convene. It will spend Monday and Tuesday in the arduous seven-stage process of tabulating its inaugural weekly top 25, and it will release that list on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

That will begin a much-anticipated process of seven weekly meetings in Grapevine, Texas, near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The meetings will run Monday-Tuesday into early December, then the final announcement of the playoff field will come on Sunday, Dec. 7.

That announcement will name the four teams which will comprise the sport’s first-ever playoff. Two of those teams will meet in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2015, while the other two will meet in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., later that day. One game will involve the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds as the committee deems, with the other game pitting No. 2 against No. 3.

The winners will meet in the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington, Texas. The committee also will determine the participants in the second tier of bowls — the Cotton, Fiesta, Peach and Orange — which also will hold semifinals in ensuing years on a rotating basis.

The committee includes five standing athletics directors — chairman Jeff Long of Arkansas, Barry Alvarez of Wisconsin, Pat Haden of Southern California, Oliver Luck of West Virginia and Dan Radakovich of Clemson — who will recuse themselves from votes that concern their own teams. It also includes the prominent former coaches Tom Osborne and Tyrone Willingham, as well as the Stanford professor, former Stanford provost and U.S. secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice.

It began earlier this year with 13 members, studying games and video and statistics around the country, until committee member Archie Manning withdrew last week, citing health concerns.

As the committee gathers through Monday and Tuesday, it will seed its 25 teams in an arduous seven-stage process. It will determine Nos. 1-3, then Nos. 4-6, then Nos. 7-9, before completing its top 25 in four remaining stages, four teams at a time.

As of this first gathering, only two unbeaten teams remain among the aristocratic conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC plus Notre Dame — and those two, Mississippi State and Florida State, hold down the top slots in both the Associated Press media and USA Today coaches polls. A further unbeaten team, Marshall (8-0), ranks No. 23 in both those familiar polls. Using data, including that from the outfit SportSource Analytics, the committee will have to sort out a further 16 teams with one loss each: four each from the Southeastern Conference and the Pac-12, three each from the Big Ten and the Big 12, one from the ACC and the top independent, Notre Dame.

To begin a secret-ballot process, each committee member will list the 25 teams he or she considers the best, but in no particular order. Any team appearing on three or more of the lists will receive further consideration.

From there, each member will list six top teams, also in no particular order, and the six receiving the most mentions will go into a pool for the first rankings step. At that point, each member will rank teams Nos. 1 through 6, with the teams receiving the best (fewest) points becoming the top three seeds. The three leftovers will go into the next round, where committee members will list their best six remaining teams and repeat the task.

By Chuck Culpepper October 27 at 11:00 AM 

Undefeated Mississippi State is expected to be in the college football playoff field as projected following the first meeting of the playoff committee. (David Stephenson/AP Photo)
For the first time in the 145 years of college football, a 12-member playoff selection committee has set to convene. It will spend Monday and Tuesday in the arduous seven-stage process of tabulating its inaugural weekly top 25, and it will release that list on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

That will begin a much-anticipated process of seven weekly meetings in Grapevine, Texas, near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The meetings will run Monday-Tuesday into early December, then the final announcement of the playoff field will come on Sunday, Dec. 7.

That announcement will name the four teams which will comprise the sport’s first-ever playoff. Two of those teams will meet in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2015, while the other two will meet in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., later that day. One game will involve the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds as the committee deems, with the other game pitting No. 2 against No. 3.

The winners will meet in the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington, Texas. The committee also will determine the participants in the second tier of bowls — the Cotton, Fiesta, Peach and Orange — which also will hold semifinals in ensuing years on a rotating basis.

The committee includes five standing athletics directors — chairman Jeff Long of Arkansas, Barry Alvarez of Wisconsin, Pat Haden of Southern California, Oliver Luck of West Virginia and Dan Radakovich of Clemson — who will recuse themselves from votes that concern their own teams. It also includes the prominent former coaches Tom Osborne and Tyrone Willingham, as well as the Stanford professor, former Stanford provost and U.S. secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice.

It began earlier this year with 13 members, studying games and video and statistics around the country, until committee member Archie Manning withdrew last week, citing health concerns.

AdvertisementAs the committee gathers through Monday and Tuesday, it will seed its 25 teams in an arduous seven-stage process. It will determine Nos. 1-3, then Nos. 4-6, then Nos. 7-9, before completing its top 25 in four remaining stages, four teams at a time.

As of this first gathering, only two unbeaten teams remain among the aristocratic conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC plus Notre Dame — and those two, Mississippi State and Florida State, hold down the top slots in both the Associated Press media and USA Today coaches polls. A further unbeaten team, Marshall (8-0), ranks No. 23 in both those familiar polls. Using data, including that from the outfit SportSource Analytics, the committee will have to sort out a further 16 teams with one loss each: four each from the Southeastern Conference and the Pac-12, three each from the Big Ten and the Big 12, one from the ACC and the top independent, Notre Dame.

To begin a secret-ballot process, each committee member will list the 25 teams he or she considers the best, but in no particular order. Any team appearing on three or more of the lists will receive further consideration.

From there, each member will list six top teams, also in no particular order, and the six receiving the most mentions will go into a pool for the first rankings step. At that point, each member will rank teams Nos. 1 through 6, with the teams receiving the best (fewest) points becoming the top three seeds. The three leftovers will go into the next round, where committee members will list their best six remaining teams and repeat the task.

AdvertisementIn between the rounds, according to the committee guidelines, committee members will “conduct a thorough evaluation of the teams before conducting the vote.” At no point do the teams receive any kind of point score.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2014/10/27/college-football-playoff-what-to-expect-from-committees-first-rankings/

Offline Sybeck1

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Hail State! Wrap this season in the Maroon and White!

Offline Diddly

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Still a whole lot of season left (and it has been a crazy season so far) but there's a lot of stuff about the playoff committee to be iffy about. Like how some of the committee members are acting Athletic Directors at schools. Should be lots of controversy over who gets in and who is left out.
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