I am not a BYU fan. At all. In fact I really don't like BYU.

But can someone explain to me like I'm a Tech grad why BYU is on the outside while Notre Dame and Oregon are not?

I think BYU has a stronger resume than both of those teams. Oregon has zero wins against currently ranked teams. Notre Dame has one over #15 USC. BYU has one win over #12 Utah.

Oregon has one loss to #2 IU. BYU has one loss to #5 Tech. ND has two losses to #3 A&M and #13 Miami.

BYU is likely at their ceiling unless they make the B12CG and win. Notre Dame has no meaningful games left. Oregon has USC left which will either give them a their first ranked win or drop them out only to be replaced by USC.

I just don't get it.

BYU will drop at least one more game, probably to tech in the CG, at that point what more do we need to see? they are one dimensional and in their one important game they got boat raced.

Skubalon said:

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Oregon has one loss to #2 IU. BYU has one loss to #5 Tech. ND has two losses to #3 A&M and #13 Miami.

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All I can think of is that Notre Dame's losses were by a combined four points, if I remember correctly Oregon's loss was close too(?), and BYU got their doors blown off. And like it or not, not everyone respects the Big 12 or the quality of their wins.

the good news is this will all be decided on the field

Oregon barely lost to #2 Indiana. BYU has relatively low strength of schedule.

It's not about logic, it's about audience.

TPS_Report said:

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It's not about logic, it's about audience.

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That's the only right answer, I guess.

The way to fix it is to have the conference championships as part of the playoffs. Have a four-team playoff of the conference champions of each of the major power conferences. Have Notre Dame have to choose a conference to compete in. This whole playoff selection of the "best teams" means that ESPN can convince you that a 3-loss SEC/Big Ten team is better than a 1-loss BigXII team. Make being in the playoffs dependent on winning your conference.

as long as you have people involved, there will be personal and professional bias.

Big 12-0 said:

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This whole playoff selection of the "best teams" means that ESPN can convince you that a 3-loss SEC/Big Ten team is better than a 1-loss BigXII team. Make being in the playoffs dependent on winning your conference.

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This is my preferred solution. Put the big conferences into divisions. Let the division winners play for the conference championship. That's the first round of the playoffs. If you can't win your division, you're out. If you can't win your conference championship, you're out.

Draw names out of a hat for conference championships to pair up.

Last team standing wins.

Oh, and for Notre Dame: it's fine if you don't want to be in a conference. That's on you. But you can't play in the playoffs anymore.

Look at Oregon, who have they beat? Best win a 2 pt win over 6-3 Iowa?

What's the Big-XIIs best OOC win this season? I honestly can't think of any marquee wins they've had outside on the conference, and as a whole they all have extremely weak OOC schedules.

The Notre Dame enigma isn't new. They took they #4 spot in the 2020 CFPs that should have belonged to A&M. They also wasted a spot in the 2012 national championship game (albeit before the CFPs), but A&M was clearly the best team in the country at the end of the season.

I think TCU's disaster in the 2022 national championship game didn't help the Big-XII's image. They played an incredibly weak schedule, lost the conference title game to a K-State team that finished with 4 losses, edged out Michigan in a defenseless shootout, and got destroyed by 58 points in the national championship by Georgia (Dawgs could have seriously scored 100 that day). There were at least a dozen more deserving teams than TCU by the end of the season, but the power conferences beat up their own.

All that being said, it'll take some time and some decent OOC wins before any Big XII team gets the nod over a blue blood, even if they're technically as good as them in that respective season.

Name recognition matters.

Elmer Dobkins said:

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What's the Big-XIIs best OOC win this season? I honestly can't think of any marquee wins they've had outside on the conference, and as a whole they all have extremely weak OOC schedules.

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The Big 12 wrecked the ACC, which is partially why the ACC is getting so little love from the committee. I think it was something like 5-1 overall. Iowa State beat Iowa in the B1G... both of those teams are now 6-4.

Tech had a series scheduled with Oregon that was canceled in the big conference shakeup to preserve Oregon's rivalry game with Oregon State. That would have been Tech's signature out of conference game.

Here's the FPI SOR standings:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume

Elmer Dobkins said:

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All that being said, it'll take some time and some decent OOC wins before any Big XII team gets the nod over a blue blood, even if they're technically as good as them in that respective season.

Name recognition matters.

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I agree with this to an extent, but as long as the playoffs are selected by who are the "best teams" criteria, it will always be subjective, not objective.

Skubalon said:

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Elmer Dobkins said:

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What's the Big-XIIs best OOC win this season? I honestly can't think of any marquee wins they've had outside on the conference, and as a whole they all have extremely weak OOC schedules.

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The Big 12 wrecked the ACC, which is partially why the ACC is getting so little love from the committee. I think it was something like 5-1 overall. Iowa State beat Iowa in the B1G... both of those teams are now 6-4.

Tech had a series scheduled with Oregon that was canceled in the big conference shakeup to preserve Oregon's rivalry game with Oregon State. That would have been Tech's signature out of conference game.

Here's the FPI SOR standings:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume

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Didn't realize that, but that makes sense. I remember Tech playing Oregon close last year in Lubbock and think there's a great possibility they'd crush Oregon by at least 2-3 scores this season. I would not want to get seeded against Tech in the playoffs.

Elmer Dobkins said:

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Skubalon said:

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Elmer Dobkins said:

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I would not want to get seeded against Tech in the playoffs.

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A&M worries me more as an opponent for Tech than any team in the top 10. Reed would be a challenge and your offense would be the best Tech's seen this year. A&M would be a matchup problem for Tech.