Frequently Asked Questions
How did the College Football Pairwise idea begin?
The College Football Pairwise was inspired by the system used by the NCAA for their Division 1 hockey postseason tournaments. In men’s college hockey, the top 16 teams in the ranking are chosen for the NCAA Tournament, with two exceptions: schools that qualify through an auto-bid bump the lowest ranked at-large team, and schools with a record under .500 are no longer allowed to qualify (known as the “Wisconsin rule”). There is absolutely no human element in the selection process, although the committee occasionally moves teams around the bracket depending on travel or conference match-ups.
After the controversy surrounding the seeding and final selection for the College Football Playoff, I wondered if a similar system could work for football.
Why an FCS dummy team?
Football is unique in the case of RPI and Pairwise.
In other sports, games against teams in other divisions do not count towards postseason consideration. When a Division I basketball team plays a Division II team in a regular season contest, the game is included in the record, but not in the calculations for RPI nor tournament resume. The same situation occurs in hockey when a Division I team plays a Division III team (there is no Division II in NCAA hockey).
However, football is not as simple because there are two subdivision of Division 1. The first being the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), home of bowl games and the College Football Playoff, and the second being the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), the highest level holding an NCAA sanctioned football championship, which holds a 24 team playoff each year.
FBS schools are allowed to count one game versus an FCS opponent for purposes of bowl eligibility. Many teams exercise this option each season in an attempt to pad their record and more easily qualify for a bowl game. Due to this special case of a team out of (sub)division being counted towards postseason eligibility, a single FCS team has been added to account for this in terms of record and strength of schedule. Because almost all FBS vs. FCS match-ups are regarded as an “easy win” for the FBS school, it was deemed not necessary to rank each individual FCS school, especially since FCS schools are not eligible for the College Football Playoff.
How close is it to real life results?
In 2014, the College Football Pairwise selected the same four teams for the College Football Playoff as the playoff committee with the same semifinal matchups, though with different seeding.
CFBPW: 1. Florida State 2. Alabama 3. Ohio State 4. Oregon
CFP: 1. Alabama 2. Oregon 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
In 2015, the College Football Pairwise selected three of the four teams for the College Football Playoff selected by the committee. The one team the Pairwise did not place in Top 4, Oklahoma, finished 5th.
CFBPW: 1. Michigan State 2. Clemson 3. Alabama 4. Notre Dame 5. Oklahoma
CFP: 1. Clemson 2. Alabama 3. Michigan State 4. Oklahoma
In 2016, the College Football Pairwise selected three of hte four teams for the Colege Football Playoff selected by the committee. The one team the Pairwise did not place in the Top 4, Washington, finished 6th.
CFBPW: 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Penn State 4. Clemson 5. Michigan 6. Washington
CFP: 1. Alabama 2. Clemson 3. Ohio State 4. Washington