With the Big 10 and Pac 12 opting out, the playoffs options are wide open
With the news on Tuesday of the Big 10 and Pac 12 postponing their season to the spring, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, people across the college football landscape began to ask one simple but hard question. Without those two conferences competing this season, how college football would go about declaring a national champion for the upcoming season.
Although difficult to answer exactly, there are many ways to go about it with three, in particular, that could spark the interest of college football fans across the country.
The first being and probably the most ironic option of the table, we could see a return of the BCS metrics to decide which two teams would have the right to play for a national championship. Although extinct since the 2014 season, in a year of the unexpected, the BCS metrics could bring forth a sense of fairness to college football. The BCS metrics would also bring a level playing field to the rest of the schools that are left. If the college football playoff committee decided on bringing back the BCS metrics just for this one year, it would make this season all that much more exciting. Teams would be forced to win, but also win with style points.
The second option would be to keep the playoff system as is with a few tweaks here and there. In this option, the American Athletic Conference champion would replace both the Big 10 and Pac 12 as the fourth team in the College Football Playoff for this season only. Giving the AAC a spot in the playoffs would help gain attention from an audience that the college football playoff has yet to reach. This would allow for the AAC to finally show that they belong in the conversation.
Lastly, the third option, this option is eerily similar to option two, with the only difference being instead of the AAC, the fourth team would be the highest-ranked team in the Group of Five. This option would help give the college football playoff a cinderella team that America could rally behind.
In all seriousness, nobody knows what the right answer may or may not be as we approach this college football season. This is unlike anything we have ever seen before, with that being said, given the current circumstances, option two might be the most logical. The American has been begging for college football to them seriously and what better way to prove themselves than to have a shot at the big boys in the college football playoffs. These are weird times, so why not get weirder with the college football playoffs? After all, it would only be for one year.