CFB Playoff committee chair admits there was ‘contentious’ debate about final spot

The College Football Playoff selection committee released its final rankings heading into bowl season on Sunday, which pegged Oklahoma as the final team to get in over Georgia and Ohio State.

To this scribe, it was absolutely the right call.

However, many folks who cover college football for a living didn’t agree with the rankings.

Apparently neither did many in the room as the committee debated things out prior to the release of the final rankings. Committee chair Rob Mullens described the debate, calling it “deep, detailed, and occasionally contentious.”

Mullens also opened up about why it was Oklahoma that ultimately got the No. 4 spot, and why Georgia was No. 5 ahead of Ohio State (much to the chagrin of Urban Meyer), which won the Big Ten and had just one loss.

“As we considered three teams for the No. 4 slot, the committee did not believe that any one team was unequivocally better than the next,” Mullens explained. “That meant we went to our protocol.

“The protocol are guidelines given to the committee by the commissioners when they created the playoff. It’s our rules of the road. It includes a variety of factors that we used to judge teams. No one factor is more important than another, and this year, the difference between 4, 5 and 6 was very close.

“Oklahoma was ranked No. 4 because they’re a one-loss conference champion with a dynamic offense, and their one loss was a close game to a ranked team at a neutral site. Georgia was ranked No. 4 because of their wins against highly-ranked teams, their impressive performance against Alabama in the conference championship game, and because of how balanced a team they are.”

Like it or not, this is a solid explanation.

Still, the calls for playoff expansion are becoming louder by the year. And honestly, that’s not a bad thing.