CFP Committee to begin considering strength of conferences in selection process
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Every college football fan will acknowledge Power 4 conference teams face tougher schedules than their Group of 6 peers. They also recognize that each team within a Power 4 conference deals with schedules of different difficulties. Now, the College Football Playoff committee will, too.
According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, the CFP committee will “determine the strength of each conference based on the schedule strength of each team in its league.” The data point will “help separate teams in the SAME LEAGUE with similar records.”
“This is an ‘inside baseball’ type stat that won’t trump quality wins, schedule strength and record strength and what the committee sees on film,” Dinich explained on Twitter/X. “But it will put a number to answer the question: how tough is the daily grind in each league? It’s not even equal within them.”
Basically, the committee is trying to put a number on the fact that each team’s path to a conference title or impressive record isn’t identical. This year, the Penn State Nittany Lions don’t face the Ohio State Buckeyes, Oregon Ducks or Indiana Hoosiers. Their record could be better than the USC Trojans’ mark come November, but USC will have battled each of those three teams.
Had this metric been introduced last year, it may have had an impact on the Texas A&M Aggies‘ CFP inclusion. Mike Elko’s team had 7 SEC wins in 2025, but just one of them came against a team that finished in the top half of the conference standings (Missouri, No. 7). You can’t control who you play in-conference, but those with stronger slates will have a better chance of overcoming losses to earn a CFP berth now than they once did.
