Revised Standings for the College Football Playoff Selection Committee

There will be no more BCS standings. In fact, there will be no standings with a formula that we can reliably project when the College Football Playoff era begins in the 2014 season. The 13-person selection committee will have sole discretion on which teams make the four-team playoff field.

About a month ago, we introduced a standings model for the committee, and asked for readers' suggestions and comments. We received a healthy amount of responses, most of which were very helpful. After taking much into consideration, we have revised our proposed standings for use by the playoff committee.

We're not arrogant or foolhardy enough to think the committee will necessarily adopt our formula, or admit it publicly. But we do hope that by starting this discussion, we'll move into a more transparent process where we won't be greeted with major surprises come football's version of Selection Sunday.

We more or less stuck to the main criteria, which the committee has emphasized as crucial in its selection process. But we have made major revisions to the distribution of each category:

1) AP poll (30 percent): The eyeball test has to mean something, and the AP poll is the only poll that's completely transparent, with each voter's ballot available for the public to scrutinize each week. It's also the most prestigious poll that's widely used by the media. (Increased from 20 percent)

2) Computer rankings (30 percent): Kenneth Massey compiles the median and mean rankings of each team from more than 100 computers each week. It's less biased than the human polls, and the large sample size removes undue influence by outliers. (Decreased from 40 percent)

3) Strength of schedule (20 percent): While there are many models to choose from, Jeff Sagarin has the most time-tested SoS formula—including results from all Division I games, FBS and FCS—that's meticulously and promptly updated each week. But since SoS is a component in every computer ranking, too much influence by the SoS would create a double-jeopardy situation. (Decreased from 30 percent)

4) Conference championship (20 percent): Only teams that win their conference championships will get the bonus, and it has to be a significant one. A team that fails to win its conference must be so highly-ranked in every other aspect to jump champions from other Big Five conferences. (Increased from 10 percent)

With that in mind, this is what the final standings would've looked like at the end of the 2013 regular season:

Rank	BCS Rank	Team	CFP Score	Conference
1	2	Auburn	.9344	SEC
2	5	Stanford	.9026	Pac-12
3	1	Florida State	.9000	ACC
4	4	Michigan State	.7956	Big Ten
5	6	Baylor	.7826	Big 12
6	3	Alabama	.6808	SEC
7	8	Missouri	.5752	SEC
8	7	Ohio State	.5644	Big Ten
9	9	South Carolina	.5534	SEC
10	14	Arizona State	.5252	Pac-12

And this is what the playoff and major bowl matchups would be had the committee followed the results of the final standings:

Bowl	Tie-in*	Matchup
Rose Bowl	Semifinal	No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 3 Florida St.
Sugar Bowl	Semifinal	No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 4 Michigan St.
Chick-fil-A Bowl	At-large or 'Group of 5'	No. 7 Missouri vs. No. 15 UCF
Cotton Bowl	At-large or 'Group of 5'	No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 12 Oklahoma St.
Fiesta Bowl	At-large or 'Group of 5'	No. 5 Baylor vs. No. 10 Arizona St.
Orange Bowl	ACC vs. SEC/Big Ten/ND	No. 8 Ohio State vs. No. 16 Clemson

Keep in mind that we now have the benefit of hindsight after the conclusion of the bowl games. When the BCS standings were unveiled at the end of the 2013 regular season, most of you did not think Oklahoma would beat Alabama and be ranked higher in the final AP poll—just as an example.

Do you agree or disagree with the revised methodology? Please submit your comments, and I'll make every effort to answer your questions as we continue to tweak our formula in the offseason. Thank you.

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