The committee that chose the 12 contenders for college football’s national title was only worried about one thing — ranking the teams.
Where those teams landed in the College Football Playoff bracket was based on a formula created by conference commissioners. That jumbled up the pairings — there are some big gaps, for instance, between where a team is seeded and where it’s ranked — and made a strong case for tinkering in the future.
“I think the process to rank the best 25 teams is a great process,” said selection committee chairman Warde Manuel. “I’ve heard debates and discussions about how the seeding of the tournament should go. I will leave that up to the commissioners.”
Among the choices the commissioners made months ago that set the template for the bracket released Sunday:
— Favoring conference champions by giving four of them byes and one more an automatic spot in the field, no matter where they were ranked in the CFP’s top 25.