Strength of Schedule should matter more for the College Football Playoffs

We're currently in what will likely be the craziest College Football season we've ever had given all of the changes to the sport. The Twelve Team College Football Playoff has arrived and its made teams with losses early in the season just as much in play as unbeaten teams. In most season, having a second loss at the end of the season often killed any chances of making the Playoff, this year we'll see a handful of teams in the Playoff with a pair of losses.

The issue for the College Football Playoff Committee is going to be deciding which two loss teams are better than the others. The group used to pick four teams with no automatic qualifiers which made the final playoff spot the only true debate, now they'll have five automatic qualifiers and seven at large bids to give out.

The biggest question that'll be placed on the Committee is whether they're going to value one or two loss teams that played easy schedules or a team with two to three losses with some impressive wins and losses to other top teams.

Early on, you look at teams like Texas A&M, LSU, and Clemson who have a loss early on as a result of playing tough non-conference games. Then you look at teams like Ohio State and Ole Miss who haven't even played a game against a tough opponent.

Should the committee really give more credit to Ohio State and Ole Miss for beating teams like Furman, Georgia Southern, Akron, and Western Michigan than to LSU for losing in a close game to USC or to Texas A&M for losinga battle to Notre Dame, or Clemson for losing to maybe the best team in the country?

When teams load their schedule up with games against inferior teams all it is doing is hurting the overall product. No one wants to watch fifty point blow outs, no one wants to tune in late in a game to watch backups dominating an even weaker opponent.

Brian Kelly shared his thoughts with USA Today and shares the sentiment that blowout cake walk wins also shouldn't matter much to the committee.

"I think you can look at the strength of your schedules now and really hold them up against the other teams that are vying for playoff opportunities and really come to the right conclusions, so I don’t know that putting 70 points on somebody does much anymore to the voters."

- Brian Kelly

Make the teams play tougher games

If the College Football Playoff committee took a stand one time and punished teams for loading their schedule with FCS Schools, the scheduling would change. Forcing teams to play tougher games would only create a better on field product, and would in turn build intrigue in the sport. We shouldn't have to compare who's blowout wins over lesser schools are more impressive so make the these teams earn their way into the playoff the right way.

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