CFP chair Mack Rhoades explains how losing a conference championship game could hurt a team’s ranking
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
College Football Playoff selection committee chair Mack Rhoades discussed the effect appearing in a conference championship game could have on a team’s ultimate ranking.
The current Playoff setup sees the five highest-ranked conference champions being guaranteed a spot in the 12-team field. Of course, if a team is positioned for an at-large Playoff berth and loses its conference championship game, that doesn’t mean it’s automatically out of the running, Rhoades said in response to a question that was asked during the post-selection teleconference on Tuesday.
“We look at it as a positive if you’re playing in the championship game. It’s another datapoint. It’s certainly recognized when we think about record strength,” Rhoades said. “Obviously, you win it, that’s a plus. If you lose it, theoretically, it’s not supposed to hurt you.”
The key word is theoretically, as Rhoades laid out.
“If it was a game where it wasn’t competitive and you completely got blown away, then that would be a conversation, candidly, in the room amongst the committee,” he added.
With just weeks to go until the regular season ends and conference championship weekend begins, it will be interesting to see how the races in each league shakes out and how they effect the Playoff field.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
