College Football Playoff Director Confirms "It Is A Made for TV Playoff"
Like every unwritten rule in sports, we all know it, but we never say it. However, in the case of College Football Playoff Director Rich Clark, he probably should have kept comments to himself about people knowing who made it into the playoffs and who didn’t.
In an interview with USA Today’s Matt Hayes on Tuesday, he expressed his emotions, saying he was not happy that former ESPN employee Brett McMurphy had leaked that SMU was the last team to enter the College Football Playoff.
"I was furious," Clark told USA Today's Matt Hayes on Tuesday. "I told all involved, you've betrayed the process. There are only a certain number of people who know. I know one thing, it wasn't me. There's the selection committee, ESPN and our staff. Someone in that group is the leak."
This decision, which created controversy before and after the selection of the final, was supposedly the biggest in the history of the 13-member selection committee. Clark just confirmed what Full Press Media wrote a couple of weeks ago: The College Football Committee controls the script and the narrative as it is a Made-for-TV Playoff.
Look, most fans and people who cover the sport are not stupid. We know what is going on. These College Football Playoff Rankings create ratings for the sport and debate. However, the claim that ESPN does not know the rankings before release is false.
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Let’s be honest: The narrative is already being driven by ESPN and others, especially regarding where teams need to be or how a loss will impact their chances of making the playoffs. These narratives are being driven by ESPN personalities and others in the sport. How do they know? They know, and Clark’s comments prove it.
“There are only a certain number of people who know,” Clark said. “ I know one thing, it wasn’t me. There’s the selection committee, ESPN and our staff. Someone in that group (is the leak).”
Again, it was a little-known secret that Clark had made public. It’s like in Professional Wrestling: we all knew Vince McMahon, but now Triple H was pulling the strings behind the scenes. But the College Football Playoff is just poorly scripted professional wrestling.
On Tuesday, Mr. Clark addressed the Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics forum. There, he explained how the committee reached its decision, revealing that it would send ideas to the conference commissioner on improving the playoff.
While there isn’t absolute transparency regarding how the votes are cast, he still wants these weekly rankings shows, not just one show like the Men’s or Women’s Basketball rankings.
“We have to have enough (playoff shows) for transparency,” Clark said. “If we go just the last week, there's too much mystery to that. If we take it away and put one ranking out there, I think that's a big mistake."
Again, everyone knew the game was rigged. However, hearing this from the College Football Playoff Director himself was eye-opening.
Sometimes some things are best left unsaid.