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College Football Playoff will keep weekly standings in 2015

Ohio State, right, and Oregon play during the first half of the NCAA College Football Playoff national championship game in Arlington, Texas.

Ohio State, right, and Oregon play during the first half of the NCAA College Football Playoff national championship game in Arlington, Texas.

(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
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Good news for college football fans who cherish at least some transparency in the playoff selection process.

The College Football Playoff announced Wednesday it will continue with a weekly ranking release in the second year of the new playoff system.

The release dates for 2015 will be Nov. 3, Nov. 10, Nov. 17, Nov. 24, Dec. 1 and Dec. 6.

There will be one fewer ranking in 2015 because the season is 14 weeks instead of 15.

It is important that the 13-person selection release, and explain, weekly standings at some point in the season.

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It provides some context for the decision-making process and is superior to coldly announcing the four-team playoff on the final day of the regular season.

It was largely a week of back slaps and high fives for the selection committee during spring meetings this week in Irving, Texas.

“College football is booming in popularity,” Bill Hancock, executive director for the College Football Playoff, said in a statement. “Fans eagerly await the weekly rankings because they love the competition and want to know how close their team is to making the playoff. The committee takes its job seriously, it works very hard, and we look forward to beginning the second season of the new College Football Playoff.”

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long was chosen again to chair the selection committee.

The first year of the playoff was, by any measure, a success. The committee chose Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State as the first four playoff teams.

The committee left out one-loss Baylor and Texas Christian.

Because the system was somewhat transparent, the public got to see TCU drop from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final week, even after a 55-3 closing win over Iowa State.

Long, the committee chairman, had to explain the decision-making process.

The TCU question was, really, the only unforced error the committee made in its inaugural season.

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There was no practical need to raise TCU to No. 3 in the second-to-last week, and it left Long to awkwardly explain why it dropped the Horned Frogs in the final rendering.

At least, though, we got a glimpse into the sausage making.

The decision to give one-loss Ohio State the final playoff spot, though, proved to be brilliant. The Buckeyes ended up winning the national title with a win over Oregon.

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