re: What is a scenario(s) that keeps 13-0 Wisconsin out of the playoff?

That is the only solution honestly. But anyway, for now until then, these things always have a way of working themselves out. There will be more crazy upsets, top 10 teams will fall, etc.

I seriously doubt Notre Dame would be the team left out in this scenario. But if it came down to it, yes I would put in an undefeated conference champion over a 1-loss team that looks better on paper.

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No we wouldn't.

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If UGAs only loss was to Alabama, it's very very possible both teams could get into the Final 4.

The Cotton Bowl is an at-large bid and LSU would be the SECs next best selection at 9-3. There has been a 9 win team as an at-large each season so far.

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What the committee considers:

CFP

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The selection committee ranks the teams based on the members’ evaluation of the teams’ performance on the field, using conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, and comparison of results against common opponents to decide among teams that are comparable.


That should actually concern ND if 4 P5 Conf Champs finish with 1 loss or less.

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It is one of, what, five or six criteria that the Committee uses? And usually as a tie-breaker for teams that are relatively close at that?

I'd be concerned if we didn't have five or six top 25 teams on our schedule.

But we don't schedule like pussies and we play really good teams almost every year, and we don't play FCS teams. I'll take our chances against an undefeated Wisconsin this year or a 1 loss Washington. Don't schedule crap. Won't be no crap.

If we are fortunate enough to win out, we'll have wins against three or so top 15 teams and probably one or two more top 25 teams with a lone loss against one of the best teams in the country by 1 point in the last few minutes of the game. We will have played at least three and perhaps four division winners in some of the best conferences in America (and will have beaten - pounded, actually - all but one). Again, I'll take our chances.

I wouldn't be surprised if an undeserving SEC team got in but ND is the only 1 loss team strong enough to get in ahead

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Why are you even responding?

As if Notre Dame ever has to worry or be concerned about a playoff spot if they have a 1-loss team.

The playoffs might be a sport but it's still network TV.

And they have sponsors...who like viewers.

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I would be concerned if we had a schedule like last year or something similar. The breaks were such that a lot of our traditionally good opponents (Texas, Michigan State, Stanford, Virginia Tech) either sucked arse or were merely decent. We played three teams that were in the final top 25, and two of those probably would have been towards the back end had they lost to us.

A 1-loss ND is never guaranteed anything, and it's why we try to play difficult schedules and never play FCS teams. In our view, the conferences, given the chance, will protect their own. A 1-loss ND is a roll of the dice and will get in as often as they won't. We had a beefy schedule this year, playing a lot of traditionally good or at least solid teams, and it has paid off so far.

I don't think ND's competitive market advantage with regard to television viewers is so huge that it would jump a 1-loss Ohio State or Florida or Texas or USC or Oklahoma or...

An undefeated ND has nothing to worry about. A 1-loss ND needs to make no doubt.

Does that make sense?

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It should be noted that BYU ia generally pretty good.

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I actually don't disagree with that, as we have played them enough in recent years to know that (they probably should have beaten our 2012 team), but...

Our fans and, seemingly, our AD subscribe to a 4-4-4 model in scheduling. You schedule 4 top tier powerhouses (traditionally, the best 15 or 20 programs in the sport - the big 6 from the SEC, UM/OSU/PSU from the B1G, USC, OU/Texas, FSU/Miami/Clemson, maybe a few others depending on the year or era), 4 P5-type middling programs (on the low end, programs like BYU or NC State or Arizona State and on the high end, programs like Stanford or UCLA or Texas A&M or Michigan State or Oregon), and 4 programs that are traditionally not great but still P5 or decent G5 programs (Duke, Wake, Temple, Miami OH, Nevada, etc.). Don't schedule FCS teams if you can help it.

That generally eliminates a schedule tanking in any given year, as one or two top tier programs might tank but are usually replaced by one or two middle tier programs having a good yeae. No offense, but Wisconsin plays in a bad division and doesn't always have crossover games against the elite programs in the B1G East. They need to be scheduling at least one and sometimes two games OOC against top tier competition - not programs like BYU that will tank as often as not.

Especially with how everyone has seen how this Committee works, there is no excuse not to schedule as strongly as possible OOC.

Bama
Georgia
ND
Wisky

In that scenario Wisky gets in because their undefeated record cops out the committee.

Oklahoma and Clemson have the two worse losses out of all of those. You could argue a loss to Auburn isn't great but they will have recovered with a win over Bama which washes that away.

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The B10 could have nipped this in the bud by just being a bit more equitable in the divisional crossover games. Last year our crossovers were OSU,PSU, and MSU iirc.

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Definitely agree with that - should go North/South rather than East/West.

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This year we miss all of them, just getting UM. (Traditionally tough, but not so much this year)

If memory serves, Iowa got the tough crossover this year.

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Yes - Iowa played PSU, OSU, and MSU this year.

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Of course with there being such a spread between the top of the conference and the bottom, with little middle, it makes the crossovers difficult to predict as well.

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I mean, kind of - you have a general baseline on how to predict how good teams will be, on average. If you play three traditional top tier opponents, it's probably reasonable to expect that two of them will actually be very good the year that you play them and one will tank. You should thus adjust the schedule.

I would honestly have a little more sympathy for Wisconsin if I didn't know that Alvarez scheduled like that for years and years. It's coming back to bite him in the arse this year, and Wisconsin isn't going to push beyond one loss Notre Dame, Clemson, or Oklahoma.

I know I'll be in the minority, but the loser of the SECCG should be out.

That game needs to function as a quarterfinal.