Wiedmer: Committee got First Four right for football playoff

Too few teams.

As the first four schools chosen for the inaugural College Football Playoff were finalized Sunday afternoon, that seemed to be the most valid argument against the current format. The more the merrier, though not too many more, since almost everyone seems to believe eight is enough.

So while it’s fair to wonder how Texas Christian could stand No. 3 on Dec. 2, then fall all the way to No. 6 by Dec. 7, it’s also fair to praise the committee for fully vetting Ohio State’s preposterously impressive 59-0 thumping of No. 13 Wisconsin in Saturday night’s Big Ten title game.

By moving the Buckeyes into the fourth and final playoff slot behind No. 1 Alabama, second-seeded Oregon and third-seeded Florida State, the committee sent a powerful message that every … game … matters.

But before everyone jumps on the “Eight Would Be Great” bandwagon — and that wagon’s already so overloaded the tires are exploding — one thought from Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott bears repeating.

Said Scott to the media on Friday, just before Oregon secured his league’s inclusion with its rout of Arizona: “If you know you’re guaranteed a spot for your conference champion in the playoffs, you care less about what’s going on in other parts of the country.”

And if you care less about what’s going on in other parts of the country, you might not watch as much college football, which means CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox and the like might not be able to charge as much for advertising, which means they might not pay as much for games, which means conferences wouldn’t make as much money, even if they possibly qualified more teams.

What? You thought something other than money was driving all this?

But there is something to be said for limiting access, for making the CFP the most exclusive club in team sports. Think about it. No other team sport has so small a playoff pool. And while every college football fan is free to argue whether or not Ohio State’s overall body of work was better than that of either Baylor or TCU, no one can argue that the uncertainty of this quartet heading into the final weekend kept interest in the sport at an all-time high.

Had Bama, Oregon, FSU and OSU all lost, we might have been staring at a foursome of TCU, Baylor, Arizona and Mississippi State. Not exactly the sex appeal of the First Four, but that’s the beauty of what ultimately transpired. No one knew until everyone knew.

Even Ohio State coach Urban Meyer told ESPN on Sunday afternoon that while you’d get an hour or two’s worth of advance notice on the BCS numbers, he didn’t know anything about this year’s playoff bid, “Until our name popped up on the screen.”

That’s not to say eight teams might not be better. While both TCU and Baylor should have played tougher non-conference schedules — both were outside the top 100 in non-conference strength of schedule — they also played nine league games — or everyone else in the Big 12, since the league has shrunk to 10 schools.

(Side note: Given that the Big Ten now has 14 teams, what if the Big 12 bought the Big Ten’s name and the Big Ten became the Big 14, so there wouldn’t only be truth in advertising, but also wouldn’t cause non-sports folk to wonder how a league with 14 schools calling itself the Big Ten can ever pretend to be serious about offering math majors?)

Nevertheless, the days of playing three (in the case of TCU and Baylor) or four nobodies to become bowl eligible are now over for college football’s finest. Let the little guys of the Fat-Cat Five conferences continue to load up on the lesser lights of FBS football as their best attempt to get six victories. Somebody’s got to help the tourist coffers of Shreveport, Memphis and the like.

But for those who dream big dreams it’s time to play big teams beyond your league. And it doesn’t have to hurt so many financially challenged programs such as FCS member University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

As has often been written in this space before, why not count only the 11 highest-rated regular-season opponents for each FBS school? That way everyone gets a cupcake, which they can use for an unofficial week off and the little guys get to keep their guarantee games.

But for this year only, it would be tough to argue too much against this field or the committee’s efforts to choose it. Yes, Ohio State had the worst loss of the four schools — losing at home in September to 6-6 Virginia Tech. Yes, Baylor’s win over TCU was better than any playoff team save Bama’s victory over then-No. 1 Mississippi State.

That doesn’t mean that this wasn’t a pretty good start.

And if the early odds from Las Vegas on the semis hold — Alabama opened as a 9.5-point favorite over OSU in the Sugar Bowl with Oregon an 8.5-point pick over defending national champ Florida State in the Rose — a Tide-Ducks final in Dallas on Jan. 12 could deliver the kind of television ratings usually reserved for the Super Bowl.

Of course, given the Buckeyes’ rout of Wisconsin, Lou Holtz — who once won a national title at Notre Dame — sounded a cautionary note for those who believe the Tide’s a cinch to knock out OSU on its way to the school’s 16th national title.

“I believe Alabama’s the best football team in the country; nobody’s better than Alabama,” Holtz said. “But Ohio State was a four-and-a-half-point underdog to Wisconsin. Be careful what you wish for.”

Both this year, and regarding that national obsession to move from four playoff teams to eight.

Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com