That’s a scary thought for fans betting on college football. But now that we’ve got your attention, it’s only fair to clarify that the former U.S. Secretary of State is only one of 13 members of the current College Football Playoff selection committee – who are the ones responsible for choosing the four colleges that will have a chance to become the CFP National Champion. That actually makes her inclusion make even less sense. Again, that’s only four colleges out of the gazillion that comprise the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.
Needless to say, this is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Therefore, we have a bunch of old, white guys such as Kirby Hocutt (Director of Athletics, Texas Tech University), Jeff Bower (former Head Coach, University Of Southern Mississippi), or Tom Jernstedt (former NCAA Executive Vice President). In a nutshell, they all have college football experience, background, and/or knowledge. Condi, not so much – though her diastema does remind people who bet on college football of the goalpost. Perhaps they needed a token girl (they already have a token black guy). Fear not about sitting thirteen at the table, though; that’s superstition. We know of only one person in history who had bad luck after sitting thirteen at his last supper.
In related news, the first of six CFP rankings was released on November 1st (the last will be released on December 4th). The playoff proper will begin on December 31st, but if it were to start today it would feature the Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0), the Clemson Tigers (8-0), the Michigan Wolverines (8-0), and the Texas A&M Aggies (7-0). Or, to put it in NCAA football betting terms:
Alabama Crimson Tide +145
Clemson Tigers +530
Michigan Wolverines +555
Texas A&M Aggies +2050
Of course this is not necessarily written in stone by any stretch of the imagination. As Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports helpfully points out, in 2014 only the Florida State Seminoles remained in the top four and was selected for the College Football Playoff from the first set of rankings, and no. 16 Ohio State went on to actually become the first National Champion. And in 2015 only Clemson made the playoffs out of the first Top 4. As a matter of fact, even colleges such as No. 17 Baylor, No. 11 Florida and No. 10 Nebraska still have a chance to clean up their act and impress the committee. Because in some ways – nay, in many ways – this is naught but popularity contest. Which means we should be thankful they didn’t get the Donald on the board.
Thus, the Washington Huskies – who are ranked behind the Aggies even though they have a better record – need not start crying out against Condi Rice like Rutgers students did when she was supposed to give a commencement speech there. Not yet, at least. Fans who bet on college football know that there is still a long way to go and, according to some Murphy dude, anything that can happen will happen. And the unexpected success of certain programs may mean that someday we just might have an eight-team college football playoff. Baby steps, though.
