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College Football
CFP favoritism? A look at each conference’s representation in the playoff rankings
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As soon as the first College Football Playoff poll came out three weeks ago, the hate against the SEC started rolling in.
Many people in the college football world saw the inclusion of more than one SEC team in the top four of the first poll as a definitive sign that the playoff committee was playing favorites with the SEC.
This is an all–too–familiar refrain. Almost every facet of college football has been accused of having an SEC bias, whether it’s College GameDay coverage time to how to judge a quality win.
To further explore the notion that the CFP Committee would “favor” any conference, we decided to turn to the numbers. During 2014, the rankings were released eight times. We examined each week’s rankings and calculated what percentage of the 25 teams belonged to each conference. We also calculated what percentage of the top–10 teams belonged to each conference. Then we averaged those percentages.
Below is the average percentage of the CFP rankings that each Power 5 conference occupied over the course of eight weeks last season:
| Conference | Average % of CFP Rankings | Average % of Top 10 |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | 26% | 33% |
| ACC | 16% | 10% |
| Big 12 | 16% | 21% |
| Big Ten | 16% | 15% |
| Pac-12 | 22% | 19% |
Looking at the numbers, last season was prime–time to argue that the CFP Committee was favoring the SEC. On average, the SEC featured the most teams in the rankings. SEC representation never fell below six teams, and often sat at seven. And when SEC teams were ranked, they tended to be ranked high. Except for one week, the SEC had either three or four teams within the top 10.
The conference also never relinquished the No. 1 spot in 2014. Mississippi State was the first–ever No. 1 team in the CFP rankings, and Alabama took over when the Bulldogs slid down.
Now let’s look at representation in 2015 rankings. So far, only three weeks’ worth of CFP rankings have occurred. Here is the average percentage of representation over those weeks:
| Conference | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | 26% | 16% | 16% |
| AAC | 12% | 16% | 12% |
| ACC | 8% | 12% | 12% |
| Big 12 | 16% | 16% | 16% |
| Big Ten | 20% | 24% | 24% |
| Independent | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| Mid-American | 4% | 0% | 0% |
| Pac-12 | 12% | 12% | 16% |
While the SEC put up similar representation numbers during the first rankings of 2015, the conference has since dropped significantly. In fact, the SEC and the AAC (think Memphis, Houston, Temple, and Navy) had the same number of teams in the CFP rankings during Week 11.
Below is the average percentage of representation over the last three weeks, as well as the average representation among the top 10:
| Conference | Average % of CFP Rankings | Average % of Top 10 |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | 19% | 23% |
| AAC | 13% | 0% |
| ACC | 11% | 10% |
| Big 12 | 16% | 23% |
| Big Ten | 23% | 23% |
| Independent | 4% | 10% |
| Mid-American | 1% | 0% |
| Pac-12 | 13% | 7% |
From these numbers, it’s clear. The SEC has dropped in representation, and in its place the Big Ten has risen up. Over the past two weeks, the Big Ten has featured six teams in the CFP rankings while the SEC has only had four.
While the 2015 season is far from over, the CFP Committee has shown so far that it isn’t swayed purely by reputation of big–name programs. The committee hasn’t kept SEC teams on the list who are not worthy, and has kept the top 10 a more equal balance between Power 5 conferences.
Christine Wang is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. She covers Auburn, Arkansas and Ole Miss.
