Actually, the University of Central Florida football program should be seriously considered for the playoffs. Yes, it is a smaller Division I university, but it has shown it can handle whatever the bigger universities can throw at it.
First, it currently has a perfect record unlike Clemson who is ranked in the top 4. Although the American Athletic Conference is not considered a powerhouse conference, UCF has defeated Maryland (Big 10), Cincinnati, Connecticut, SMU and Memphis. To say that UCF got lucky or those were inferior schools of their respective conferences would be disrespectful of those schools and diminish the athletic prowess of their respective conferences as well. For example, Memphis defeated UCLA (PAC-12) and Navy but was handed a 13-40 defeat by UCF.
It will be interesting to see if the Playoff Committee will agree Tuesday evening . . . last year, Western Michigan University was in a similar situation with a perfect record but larger universities got to play in the playoffs. Yes, Western Michigan did lose in the Cotton Bowl to Wisconsin but the opportunity to play in the playoffs should still have been theirs despite the potential of losing.
The playoff system was created to replace the BCS to create an atmosphere of more competitive fairness. But if the smaller schools like Western Michigan and UCF remain left out in the cold, then the BCS still remains just under a different name. It’s time to shed the BCS completely, and let the “Davids” play the “Goliaths.”
Yes, the playoff system is about money as well as competitiveness. Some of the larger schools are well known to travel well like Ohio State, Stanford, Michigan and Alabama for example. But smaller schools are close-knit. A big event like the playoffs will inspire them to stop everything else and show up.
Every now and then the Davids do win, and the money will still come.
Source: CFB