Of all the quirks of the initial polling in the College Football Playoff, none was more glaring than the way the selection committee ignored Baylor.
Now what?
Now what does the 12-member committee do after Baylor’s utter humiliation of Oklahoma — the worst home loss in the Bob Stoops era — has suddenly thrust the Bears back into the championship narrative?
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The same Baylor team that last month beat the committee’s No. 6 team TCU. The same Baylor team that somehow has been stuck in the teens (currently No. 12) after losing at a strong West Virginia team that TCU beat last week on a last-second field goal.
The same Baylor team that, if it wins out, wins the Big 12.
So after the Bears beat Oklahoma like no team has in decades in Norman — the same OU team that TCU beat in the last minute in Fort Worth (if you’re comparing scores) — can the CFP committee admit it was wrong and move the Bears ahead of TCU?
That, or taint the process forever.
Because time and again, we’ve been told by the CFP committee that it values two things over everything else: head to head and conference championships. And Baylor has both over TCU.
No matter what TCU does the rest of the season, they shouldn’t be ranked ahead of Baylor at any point — if both have one loss. If the committee feels that strongly about TCU (and obviously it does), then it absolutely must admit it was wrong about Baylor and move the Bears ahead of TCU.
The idea that Baylor’s bad non-conference schedule impacts the way the committee views the Bears against TCU is laughable. This is about head-to-head — a game that Baylor won with a last-second field goal but dominated every aspect of the game (check the box score) — and conference championships. The committee has made that clear.
If the Big 12 is deep enough and strong enough to earn a spot in the CFP semifinals — and there has been little doubt of that the last month of the season — it’s time the committee swallow hard and admit it was wrong.
Or taint the process forever.