Michigan Football: Does it matter that Big Ten isn’t part of playoff?
The College Football Playoff selection committee revealed its schedule for the year and it’s going forward without the Big Ten and Pac-12.
For those wondering about the College Football Playoff and whether Michigan football would have any shot at qualifying, even in a spring season, that’s no longer a possibility.
There has never been any serious momentum to delay the College Football Playoff, although the FCS and other lower divisions in the NCAA have postponed their championships until the spring.
But Monday, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced that the teams would be picked on Dec. 20 and that the playoff would being Jan. 1 at the Rose and Sugar Bowls.
The National Championship Game will be Jan. 11 in Miami.
So what does this mean?
Well for starters, it means that the College Football Playoff will be decided, essentially, among the ACC, SEC and Big 12, plus Notre Dame, which is part of the ACC this year.
Does it matter that Big Ten isn’t involved?
At this point, there seems to be nothing a Big Ten team can achieve beyond winning a conference championship.
Some fans may scoff at that, but as a Michigan football fan, winning the Big Ten is a realistic goal, more so than winning the national championship.
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College football used to be about winning the conference, playing in the traditional bowl, which was the Rose, Orange, Cotton or Sugar and then making the case for being No. 1.
It wasn’t perfect, but the current system has definitely de-valued the conference championships. Ohio State has won the Big Ten multiple times only to be left out of the College Football Playoff.
From 2016-2018, the Big Ten had just one representative and it was when the Buckeyes didn’t win the conference title.
And as close as the Buckeyes were to beating Clemson last season, the Big Ten’s record in the playoff hasn’t been good, at least since Ohio State won the first go around in 2014.
Michigan State was blown out by Alabama in 2015, Ohio State was blown out by Clemson in 2016 and then, in 2019, Ohio State lost narrowly to the Tigers again.
For Michigan football, having the College Football Playoff as a goal doesn’t really matter this year.
The Wolverines opened the AP Poll ranked 17th, although next week, Michigan and others not playing, will drop out of the poll completely.
So I guess the Big Ten won’t have a chance at the AP national title either.
My response? Oh well.
Playing for a Big Ten championship is much better than nothing and this time around, the team that wins it, will get to enjoy that ride into the offseason, instead of enduring a likely playoff loss.
It’s nice to talk about the College Football Playoff, but for every team in the Big Ten outside of Ohio State, it’s not really relevant and even OSU hasn’t won a playoff game in six years.
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So far as the figuring out the best team in the country, maybe it’s not a big deal that the Big Ten isn’t included.