I have to ask. How are you new to the sport?

On Dec 4th, the college football playoff committee will announce which 4 teams will be in the playoff for the championship. So far it's just been 4 conference champions. If Ohio State is to get in, the committee will have to veer from the past.

After that, bowl match-ups will be announced. Generally, any team with 6 wins is eligible. However, a few 5 win teams will make it due to bowl expansion.

But don't fret over the end of the season. The Bowl Season starts on 12/17 and there are games every day up until the National Championship,

Great thanks
strange thing to have a committee!
new to the sport cos until January this year I'd never watched a game in my life and I'm nearly 40! learned most basic rules playing similar online games to this from then till Sept onwards. been watching loads this season and dropped our football now! love the sport just shame it didn't last a little longer!

how does overseas rules football crown a champ without a committee

don't yall need parades and queens and pie eating contests, and then maybe a match to draw in the rubes and their cash

The team that has the player who rolls on the ground faking an injury the longest is declared the champ.

Washington makes a pretty strong case to get beaten by Bama by 30.

is being the 4th team worth the drubbing?


if Penn St were to squeeze in, then Pitt would have beaten half the playoff teams

Damn, Clemson prob won't drop. Really wanted to see Michigan vs Alabama whether is was #1 vs #2 or #1 vs #4. I really wanted to see our defense against the best in the nation. Nobody else was a threat to our defense

Well, except the teams that already beat them. No way in hell should Michigan have gotten in unless everybody Power 5 was upset in the conference championship.

I'll be shocked if it's not Bama, OSU, Clemson, Washington.

I really think Oklahoma is getting dicked.

Bought a team again so I have access again after missing the college season.

Overall I believe the 4 best teams are in the playoff. Penn State lost to Pittsburgh and got crushed by Michigan. Yes it won the Big Ten after beating Ohio St., but conferences don't account for the non-conference and PSU slipped up there. Michigan lost on the road to Iowa and Ohio St. finishing with 2 losses. Oklahoma got crushed at home by Ohio State and lost by 10 to a Houston team that ended up unranked with 4 losses. It is really hard to justify any of those three teams over the 4 that made it in by any objective or subjective standard that accounts for the whole season.

I still have no idea what the committee really looks at though. Clearly Ohio St.'s non-con win over Oklahoma is a main reason OSU made the playoffs, but on the same token PSU's loss to Pittsburgh is probably the main reason it did not. It seems there is little doubt that had PSU played a lesser team and won, it would have made the playoffs. So do you schedule a tough non-con and hope you win, or do you play all cream puffs like Washington (though to be fair at least UW scheduled a Big Ten team unfortunately for it, that Big Ten team might be the worst Power 5 team in football this year). There still isn't much clarity since a team made it in by winning a tough non-con and a team was left out because it lost a non-con (OU was also probably left out because of its 2 non-con losses, maybe OU is there instead of UW if OU had beaten Houston).

OU was one of the better teams at the end of the year. That's why I felt they should be in. On a neutral field, they beat UW 19 of 20. And OU would have been far better off scheduling cupcakes than OSU. I think they were looking at Houston as a win but let that one get away. There's no doubt in my mind, that if they had scheduled Akron and SMU instead, they'd be in.

But the committee does lack consistency. I think OSU is in because they pass the eye test whereas PSU does not. But, if you're using eye test for the last month of the season, there's no way OU isn't in.

I have no reason to complain about the other three slots. And Bama probably rocks OU anyway if they were in.

Was OU really one of the better teams though? They looked pretty good, no question, but they were playing Big 12 teams and the Big 12 beat absolutely no one of note in the non-con. The conference just didn't look good out of conference so how can you know how good OU is beating those teams. Outside of the 2 losses, I think that was OU's biggest problem. The conference quite simply had no marquee wins (and only West Virginia and Baylor were 3-0 out of conference). That is where the non-con can really help a team (or a conference) and the Big 12 failed miserably in that regard.

Well, we argued this over and over last year but sometimes the result doesn't reflect the talent. Some of that's coaching, some of it's gelling as a team and of it's just a random bounce of a ball. Oklahoma and USC looked in sync in November. We know both have the bodies/talent in place. It's just getting them to play together. I think we agree that most teams evolve as the season progresses.

That said, there is merit to your point. We have no base to grade B12 teams against. But, if we agree that teams evolve, Baylor/WVU/TCU playing SEC/B10 schools in week 2-3 might not provide that base anyway. Houston/Louisville looked like world-beaters early, not so much late. FSU got destroyed but ended up about where you'd expect. Clemson was up/down all year but still went undefeated.

Clemson lost to Pittsburgh, but your larger point remains.

At the end of the day, you have to grade teams based on their results as well as how they look achieving those results. Oklahoma lost to a 3 loss Houston team by double digits (earlier I had forgotten Houston lost its bowl game for the 4th loss) and got destroyed at home by Ohio State. Obviously Ohio St. was the best team Oklahoma played all year, and perhaps Houston was the 2nd best team it played. Given just how bad the Big 12 performed in the non-con there really is no way to know. I mean Oklahoma St. was the 2nd best team in the Big 12 and it lost to Central Michigan. I understand it was a loss on a play that shouldn't have happened, but Central Michigan finished 3-5 in the MAC, would a good team have even been in a situation where 1 play could decide the game against a team like Central Michigan. I mean Virginia beat Central Michigan by 14 points, the same Virginia that was 1-7 in the ACC and finished 2-10 overall, yet Okie St. lost to that team. Not a good look for the Big 12.

Well, yeah, they did.

Knowing you're a Buckeye guy, and that they are generally considered the 2nd/3rd best team in CFB this season, they were in several situations, late in the season, where 1 play gives them an L. Loss to PSU, 4 points over Northwestern, 1 point over MSU and OT vs Michigan. The 2nd/3rd best team should have never been in position to lose to NW or MSU. Yet they were. That's also why the Clemson loss was so ugly. They couldn't pick up one yard on two plays to put the game away. And they should have lost to NC State. So you really can't say "Should a good team have even been in that situation?" because the consensus 2 and 3 were in those situations several times.