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COVID-19 could have major impact on College Football Playoff race

by Eric Vah, , Sports Editor


The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

Ohio State cheerleaders run onto the field before an Ohio State football game.  Photo credit: "Miniature Buckeyes" by Ed from Ohio is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Ohio State cheerleaders run onto the field before an Ohio State football game. Photo credit: "Miniature Buckeyes" by Ed from Ohio is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Since COVID-19 brought this country on lockdown on March 13, everything that has been scheduled has either been canceled, postponed, or severely impacted by the pandemic. College football has been no different and will continue to be no different come postseason time in January. Since each conference is doing their own schedule, it is extremely difficult for the playoff committee to be objective with every team playing a different amount of games in the season. Because of this, The Jaguar Times takes a deep dive into the impact of COVID-19 on the College Football Playoff.


First off, the College Football season went into a huge frenzy when the Big Ten and Pac-12 originally decided to postpone their seasons to the spring, leading to questions as to whether or not there could be a legitimate national champion crowned at the end of the season. Since then the Big Ten and Pac-12 have flipped the switch and will start their seasons very soon. The Big Ten started a nine-game regular season last Saturday, while the Pac-12 will start a seven-game regular season the week of November 7. Because of this, it will be a little bit more difficult to judge how good a team from these conferences are, considering they are playing a shorter schedule.


The Jaguar Times asked Bradley students what they thought about the fairness of the playoff this year. Ben Gierman (11) thinks it won’t affect the fairness of the playoff because “nothing was fair to begin with this season.” He also said that “the real problem was finding a way to let players play”, referring to the uncertainty of the 2020 season.


On the other hand, the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 have started their seasons already, and it seems that teams this season will only be as good as their conferences are. For example, Oklahoma was ranked top 5 in the preseason polls but fell to Kansas State and Iowa State in back-to-back weeks, practically eliminating them from playoff contention. Now, the Big 12 is in huge trouble because Oklahoma State and Kansas State are the top playoff contenders for the Big 12, with both teams still having to play each other.


Due to COVID-19, the ACC and Big 12 only allowed one non-conference game, while the SEC is playing a conference-only schedule. This makes it easier for teams in these leagues to have a good resumé with more games being played, which makes it harder to have a fair opinion on the best teams in general.


The main impact of COVID-19 on this year’s College Football Playoff is that when teams in the Big Ten and Pac-12 finally play, other big name teams will be almost finished with their season, which makes it difficult for the playoff committee to fairly judge and pick the 4 best teams in the nation. The fairness of the playoff will be severely impacted by this virus and the country will await how it plays out this winter. The College Football Playoff is set to start on January 1 with the national championship scheduled for January 11.


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