Oregon 'got absolutely screwed' by College Football Playoff Committee according to top FOX Sports analyst
There has been plenty of talk about the new College Football Playoffs structure, especially surrounding the Oregon Ducks. The best team in the country with the only undefeated record now has the hardest path to a National Championship.Fox Sports' Joel Klatt took an opportunity to share his thoughts on the situation, one that desperately needs […]
There has been plenty of talk about the new College Football Playoffs structure, especially surrounding the Oregon Ducks. The best team in the country with the only undefeated record now has the hardest path to a National Championship.
Fox Sports' Joel Klatt took an opportunity to share his thoughts on the situation, one that desperately needs adjusting in future years to avoid a situation such as this one. He didn't hold back.
"Congratulations, Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks, you got absolutely screwed by the playoff committee, because their sentiment of trying to create artificial floors rose some of these teams to the levels where they shouldn't be," Klatt said. "The reward for going 13-0 and having the best regular season in all of college football, which is supposed to be the most valuable regular season in all of sports, the reward for that is having to play the three highest odds team to win the national championship. They're going to have to go through, possibly, Ohio State, Texas, and Georgia to win the National Championship."
"So now it's not a true meritocracy. Now it's not a true playoff. It's not a true bracket. You set out to do something like value the conference championship game, and in doing so, you devalued the conference championship game," Klatt continued. "That's the unintended consequence. The cost of the artificial manipulation of seeds will be bore by Oregon, the exact team that should have earned every right to have the easiest path to a National Championship. That's what we do in every other sport, because it's a true meritocracy in those sports and we don't artificially pull the levers of power to bump teams up based on sentiment. We let it be."
The current College Football Playoffs structure is in place for the next two years, with the ability to reassess the format taking place following. There's a simple solution — reseed the teams remaining after the first round of the playoffs. If the committee wants to maintain their current structure for seeding the first round of the playoffs, then reseed the matchups on the bracket so the No. 1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed in the second round of the playoffs, the No. 2 seed plays the second-lowest remaining seed, and so on. If the CFP committee is hell bent on rewarding conference champions with first round byes, then at least reseed the matchups that they'll face.
The current structure strips away the appeal of excellence, which should never be the goal of any sport. Oregon, for going 13-0 and winning the Big Ten, has the hardest path. The team that they just beat, Penn State, gets a first round matchup with SMU, which would be followed by a game against Boise State should they win their first round game. Penn State is being rewarded for losing, while Oregon is being punished for winning.
This system is clearly broken and needs to be fixed as soon as it's possible to do so.
Oregon has ‘must watch’ ahead of Ducks’ College Football Playoff Rose Bowl game that could change everything
There’s plenty to pay attention to.
Follow along all year for more Oregon Ducks coverage on A to Z Sports. You can find me on Bluesky @jonhelmkamp.bsky.social, as well as follow our main page @AtoZSports.bsky.social for all the latest news.
