Gundy: Human factor may eliminate 'small schools' from playoff
Published: 7/25/2012 3:58 PM
Last Modified: 7/25/2012 3:58 PM
A doorman will be posted at the entrance of college football’s playoff. And, because the doorman is human, the “little guys” will be told that they aren’t welcome.
That’s not quite how Mike Gundy told the story during the Big 12’s football media days in Dallas. But that’s sort of what he meant.
Gundy was asked about the creation of a four-team college football playoff that will begin in 2014. The four teams won't be chosen by computer rankings or by a BCS-type formula involving "people polls" and computer rankings. The participants will be chosen by a selection committee.
“In my opinion, it is going to eliminate your smaller schools from getting in the (playoff),” Gundy said, citing the “human factor.”
The humans might consider, for instance, six teams with strong playoff resumes.
And Gundy thinks people on the committee could jump to the conclusion that teams from power conferences deserve to be in the playoffs instead of schools from smaller conferences because of the haven’t-played-enough-tough-games argument.
Said Gundy, “That’s the only thing that I think, across the country, could be a concern is you may have a team that is 11-1, but they will say look ‘who they have played? Well, you are right. We’ve got to let that team (which played an allegedly tougher schedule) in.’ ”
Gundy said that’s really what happened to OSU when the Cowboys weren’t chosen for the BCS championship game last season. “They said this is who Alabama played and so that’s why they got in. Now that the human element is involved, they are really going to say it. That’s just my opinion.”
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
