D1 college football has always been a caste-enabled athletic institution. Its independence from the NCAA and team/conference bias manifest this characterization.
From the pre-BCS ranking system and the BCS to the current College Football Playoff, equal opportunity and fair play have never been considered necessary when it comes to the top four teams at the end of the regular season.
No matter the quality wins or undefeated record, unless you are the SEC or a Power 5 conference team, you won’t be playing for a national championship.
And that, unfortunately, is a fact.
This year’s caste-system victim is Cincinnati who, despite going into South Bend last month and beating the Irish, is once again relegated to the outside looking in.
This happens every year, pleasing college football traditionalists who fear their beloved alma mater being upset by rebelious teams daring to breach the fortifications surrounding the Power 5.
Appalachian State, Utah (pre-Pac 12 membership), Boise State, UCF and Cincinnati are a few who successfully infiltrated the sport’s kingdom of Camelot.
In response, the power structure refused to play top FCS teams, bought off others by welcoming them into a Power 5 conference or simply ignore them by leaving them out of the top four.
We witnessed the latter once again when the first CFP rankings were released on November 2nd and the Cincinnati Bearcats tumbled to 6th despite being undefeated and beating Notre Dame, who was ranked 9th at the time.
Purists, like Colin Cowherd, feel this is right because teams like Georgia, Alabama and Oregon have “earned” that right.
According to those like Cowherd, those teams are bigger, recruit better and are simply better. Even when they lose, they deserve a pass.
Yet they won’t put it on the line against a team like Cincinnati who sits at 10-0.
The Bearcats are too dangerous.
They almost beat Georgia in the Peach Bowl last season and beat Notre Dame this season.
A loss to Cincy would hurt their ranking. But even more horrifying, it would elevate the underdogs even more so.
The college football power caste system cannot allow that to happen so upstarts must be kept in their place.
And that infuriates AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco, who continues to fight for his conference’s teams like Cincinnati.
“Cincinnati will need some help; that statement in itself is accurate,” said Aresco. “But it shouldn’t be that way. If they keep winning, they shouldn’t need any help.”
Now they have the opportunity to change that but they’re still flailing.
An initial CFP expansion suggestion called for automatic bids for the Power 5 champions plus one.
Aresco rightfully dismissed that idea.
“I don’t want to see a system that would reward privilege for the sake of privilege,” said Aresco.
He has fiercely defended the rights of the Group of 5 conferences, which includes the AAC. He wants the disrespect to end and the doors opened to all FBS teams.
“This branding is very harmful to us,” said Aresco. “It’s as if we play in a different division.”
Aresco is absolutely correct and it doesn’t have to be this way.
The CFP committee, made up of 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, needs to reach a unanimous consensus on a new format before the discussions can move forward.
This summer, a 12-team format with six guaranteed spots for the highest-ranked FBS conference champions and six at-large bids was proposed. In addition, no limit was placed on the number of teams a conference could have in the playoffs.
But that blatantly leaves the door open to more Power 5 bias.
So this month’s meeting came and went without a clear direction.
If the committee can agree upon the number of teams for possible expansion at their next meeting on December 1st, they can recommend it in January to the university presidents and chancellors of the oversight committee.
The ultimate goal is to have a plan in place for expansion before the CFP’s current deal with ESPN expires in 2025. If not, expansion will probably have to wait until a new deal is signed.
The field needs to be expanded and expanded fairly. That’s obvious.
It should not feature 12 teams where 11 are from Power 5 conferences, yet tradition, money and the power structure dictate the system be rigged every year.
Everyone knows it.
Cincinnati beat Notre Dame but the committee dissects their schedule and gives them just enough credit to rank them 5th, conviniently outside of the playoff picture.
Yet Oregon beat Ohio State so their loss to Stanford in overtime is viewed as a mulligan for the Ducks.
This weekend, Texas A&M lost to Mississippi, leaving the Aggies at 7-3.
But one of those wins is against Alabama, but their three loses are against Arkansas (7-3), Mississippi State (6-4) and Ole Miss (8-2).
So how bad does the Tide’s loss to Texas A&M look now?
The committee won’t even blink at this fact but we all know they should.
If the CFP is serious about true competition and fair expansion, a just recommendation should come out of their meeting next month.
But if Florida’s game on Saturday against FCS team Samford, where the Gators allowed 52 points by the Bulldogs, is viewed as a warning sign to the college football power structure, don’t expect expansion anytime soon.
