College Football Playoff committee sets schedule for ‘20 season

We now know when the College Football Playoff committee’s ranking release dates will be.

We all know which poll is really the most important, it’s the College Football Playoff committee’s. With the Big Ten and Pac-12 opting to sit out this fall and try and play in the spring, there was a big decision for the committee if they would go forward as usual. Well, they have made a decision.

They will crown a champion in the fall, regardless of the fact that only three of the major conferences will participate. Does that really even matter though? The Big Ten and Pac-12 have not won a game since the inaugural season of the CFP in 2015, when Ohio State beat Oregon for the title. There is definitely an argument to be made that it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference, the only school that could potentially make a run out of those conferences is Ohio State. They ranked second in the AP’s preseason poll today.

Adding more insult to the Big Ten is the fact that Gary Barta, the Athletic Director for Iowa, is serving as the chair this year, his first representing the conference. Barta will be the face of the CFP, while his conference sits at home and watches from afar while a semifinal game is played in the Rose Bowl.

By the time the first rankings are released, the Irish will have played 9 games, plenty of data points for the committee to make solid decisions on where to place the teams. What is interesting, however, is that last two weeks. The ACC will finish the season with their championship game on December 12th, while the SEC concludes a week later. Traditionally, each conference plays their championship games on the same weekend.

Now that we know what the CFP’s schedule looks like, we can look ahead to what lies in store for the Irish. The jockeying for positioning starts in just a few weekends.