In less than two weeks, the College Football Playoff selection committee will reveal its first batch of rankings for the 2024 season. It’s an unenviable task only made more difficult by a wave of conference realignment that has seen the Power Five consolidate into a Power Four.
Within the new 16- to-18-team power conferences is a wild amount of schedule variability that is going to make parsing résumés a nightmare.
If only things could be as clean as they were in the Big 12 between 2011 and 2022, when members of a 10-team conference played a nine-game league schedule, facing everyone else in the league once. Even then, teams played a varying number of home and road games. But it was the closest thing to scheduling nirvana the sport could achieve.
Now, there are teams within the same conference that are navigating schedules from different planets. Indiana plays just one of the five highest-ranked Big Ten teams in the current CBS Sports 134. Michigan State plays four of them, including both Oregon and Ohio State.
Not surprisingly, it’s the Hoosiers and not the Spartans who enter Week 9 action unbeaten and in the CFP hunt.
The selection committee’s charge, according to the CFP website, is to rank the teams “based on the members’ evaluation of the teams’ performance on the field, using conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, and comparison of results against common opponents.”
As the committee enters that task, perhaps its members could learn something from college basketball’s NCAA Tournament selection process. While the hoops recipe is also imperfect, the college basketball folks have been at this for a few decades now.
Lately, they’ve settled on a system that divides wins and losses into “quadrants” based on where the game was played and the caliber of the opponent. Quad 1 wins are like gold on Selection Sunday, whereas even a single Quad 4 loss can wreck your hopes of an at-large bid to the Big Dance.
College football might be well-served to adopt a similar system. If it did, here’s how the résumés of the sport’s top teams would look entering Week 9.
Using this week’s CBS Sports 134, we’ve grouped the wins and losses of every team in the top 25 into four quadrants, mirroring the college basketball system. They are as follows:
Quad 1
1-15 home
1-20 neutral
1-25 road
Quad 2
16-40 home
21-45 neutral
26-50 road
Quad 3
41-75 home
46-85 neutral
51-95 road
Quad 4
76-134 (or FCS) home
86-134 neutral
96-134 road
1. Oregon
Q1 (1-0): W 32-31 vs. Ohio State
Q2 (1-0): W 37-34 vs. Boise State
Q3 (3-0): W 49-14 at Oregon State, W 34-13 at UCLA, W 31-10 vs. Michigan State
Q4 (2-0): W 24-14 vs. Idaho, W 35-0 at Purdue
What’s left: vs. Illinois (Q2), at Michigan (Q2), vs. Maryland (Q3), at Wisconsin (Q2), Washington (Q3)
2. Ohio State
Q1 (0-1): L 32-31 at Oregon
Q2 (1-0): W 35-7 vs. Iowa
Q3 (1-0): W 38-7 at Michigan State
Q4 (3-0): W 52-6 vs. Akron, W 56-0 vs. Western Michigan, W 49-14 vs. Marshall
What’s left: vs. Nebraska (Q2), at Penn State (Q1), vs. Purdue (Q4), vs. Northwestern (Q4), vs. Indiana (Q1), vs. Michigan (Q3)
3. Penn State
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (2-0): W 21-7 vs. Illinois, W 33-30 at USC
Q3 (1-0): W 34-12 at West Virginia
Q4 (3-0): W 34-27 vs. Bowling Green, W 56-0 vs. Kent State, W 27-11 vs. UCLA
What’s left: at Wisconsin (Q2), vs. Ohio State (Q1), at Purdue (Q4), at Minnesota (Q2), vs. Maryland (Q3)
4. Georgia
Q1 (2-1): W 34-3 vs. Clemson, W 30-15 at Texas, L 41-34 at Alabama
Q2 (0-0):
Q3 (1-0): W 13-12 at Kentucky
Q4 (3-0): W 48-3 vs. Tennessee Tech, W 31-13 vs. Auburn, W 41-31 vs. Mississippi State
What’s left: vs. Florida (Q3), at Ole Miss (Q1), vs. Tennessee (Q1), vs. UMass (Q4), vs. Georgia Tech (Q3)
5. Miami
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (2-0): W 41-17 at Florida, W 52-45 at Louisville
Q3 (3-0): W 50-15 at South Florida, W 38-34 vs. Virginia Tech, W 39-38 at Cal
Q4 (2-0): W 56-9 vs. Florida A&M, W 62-0 vs. Ball State
What’s left: vs. Florida State (Q4), vs. Duke (Q3), at Georgia Tech (Q2), vs. Wake Forest (Q4), at Syracuse (Q2)
6. Texas
Q1 (0-1): L 30-15 vs. Georgia
Q2 (1-0): W 31-12 at Michigan
Q3 (2-0): W 51-3 vs. ULM, W 34-3 vs. Oklahoma
Q4 (3-0): W 52-0 vs. Colorado State, W 56-7 vs. UTSA, W 35-13 vs. Mississippi State
What’s left: at Vanderbilt (Q2), vs. Florida (Q3), at Arkansas (Q2), vs. Kentucky (Q3), at Texas A&M (Q1)
7. Indiana
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (1-0): W 56-7 vs. Nebraska
Q3 (3-0): W 42-13 at UCLA, W 42-28 vs. Maryland, W 41-24 at Northwestern
Q4 (3-0): W 31-7 vs. FIU, W 77-3 vs. Western Illinois, W 52-14 vs. Charlotte
What’s left: vs. Washington (Q3), at Michigan State (Q3), vs. Michigan (Q3), at Ohio State (Q1), vs. Purdue (Q4)
8. Clemson
Q1 (0-1): L 34-3 vs. Georgia
Q2 (0-0)
Q3 (2-0): W 49-14 at Wake Forest, W 48-31 vs. Virginia
Q4 (4-0): W 66-20 vs. Appalachian State, W 59-35 vs. NC State, W 40-14 vs. Stanford, W 29-13 at Florida State
What’s left: vs. Louisville (Q2), at Virginia Tech (Q2), at Pitt (Q1), vs. The Citadel (Q4), vs. South Carolina (Q2)
9. Iowa State
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (1-0): W 20-19 at Iowa
Q3 (4-0): W 20-0 at Houston, W 43-21 vs. Baylor, W 28-16 at West Virginia, W 38-35 vs. UCF
Q4 (2-0): W 21-3 vs. North Dakota, W 52-7 vs. Arkansas State
What’s left: vs. Texas Tech (Q3), at Kansas (Q3), vs. Cincinnati (Q2), at Utah (Q3), vs. Kansas State (Q2)
10. BYU
Q1 (1-0): W 18-15 at SMU
Q2 (1-0): W 38-9 vs. Kansas State
Q3 (3-0): W 34-28 at Baylor, W 41-19 vs. Arizona, W 38-35 vs. Oklahoma State
Q4 (2-0): W 41-13 vs. Southern Illinois, W 34-14 at Wyoming
What’s left: at UCF (Q3), at Utah (Q3), vs. Kansas (Q4), at Arizona State (Q2), vs. Houston (Q4)
11. Notre Dame
Q1 (1-0): W 23-13 at Texas A&M
Q2 (1-0): W 31-24 vs. Louisville
Q3 (1-0): W 31-13 vs. Georgia Tech
Q4 (3-1): L 16-14 vs. Northern Illinois, W 66-7 at Purdue, W 28-3 vs. Miami (Ohio), W 49-7 vs. Stanford
What’s left: vs. Navy (Q2), vs. Florida State (Q4), vs. Virginia (Q3), vs. Army (Q1), at USC (Q3)
12. Tennessee
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (1-1): L 19-14 at Arkansas, W 24-17 vs. Alabama
Q3 (3-0): W 51-10 vs. NC State, W 25-15 at Oklahoma, W 23-17 vs. Florida
Q4 (2-0): W 69-3 vs. Chattanooga, W 71-0 vs. Kent State
What’s left: vs. Kentucky (Q3), vs. Mississippi State (Q4), at Georgia (Q1), vs. UTEP (Q4), at Vanderbilt (Q2)
13. LSU
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (3-0): W 36-33 at South Carolina, W 29-26 vs. Ole Miss, W 34-10 at Arkansas
Q3 (0-1): L 27-20 vs. USC
Q4 (3-0): W 44-21 vs. Nicholls, W 34-17 vs. UCLA, W 42-10 vs. South Alabama
What’s left: at Texas A&M (Q1), vs. Alabama (Q2), at Florida (Q2), vs. Vanderbilt (Q2), vs. Oklahoma (Q3)
14. Texas A&M
Q1 (0-1): L 23-13 vs. Notre Dame
Q2 (3-0): W 33-20 at Florida, W 21-17 vs. Arkansas, W 41-10 vs. Missouri
Q3 (0-0)
Q4 (3-0): W 52-10 vs. McNeese, W 26-20 vs. Bowling Green, W 34-24 at Mississippi State
What’s left: vs. LSU (Q1), at South Carolina (Q2) vs. New Mexico State (Q4), at Auburn (Q3), vs. Texas (Q1)
15. Pitt
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (1-0): W 28-27 vs. Cincinnati
Q3 (3-0): W 38-34 vs. West Virginia, W 34-24 at North Carolina, W 17-15 vs. Cal
Q4 (2-0): W 55-24 vs. Kent State, W 73-17 vs. Youngstown State
What’s left: vs. Syracuse (Q2), at SMU (Q1), vs. Clemson (Q1), at Louisville (Q2), at Boston College (Q3)
16. Kansas State
Q1 (0-1): L 38-9 at BYU
Q2 (2-0): W 34-27 at Tulane, W 31-28 at Colorado
Q3 (3-0): W 31-7 vs. Arizona, W 42-20 vs. Oklahoma State, W 45-18 at West Virginia
Q4 (1-0): W 41-6 vs. Tennessee Martin
What’s left: vs. Kansas (Q4), at Houston (Q4), vs. Arizona State (Q2), vs. Cincinnati (Q2), at Iowa State (Q1)
17. Alabama
Q1 (1-1): W 41-34 vs. Georgia, L 24-17 at Tennessee
Q2 (2-1): W 42-10 at Wisconsin, L 40-35 at Vanderbilt, W 27-25 vs. South Carolina
Q3 (1-0): W 63-0 vs. Western Kentucky
Q4 (1-0): W 42-16 vs. South Florida
What’s left: vs. Missouri (Q2), LSU (Q1), vs. Mercer (Q4), at Oklahoma (Q3), vs. Auburn (Q4)
18. Boise State
Q1 (0-1): L 37-34 at Oregon
Q2 (1-0): W 45-24 vs. Washington State
Q3 (1-0): W 56-45 at Georgia Southern
Q4 (3-0): W 56-14 vs. Portland State, W 62-30 vs. Utah State, W 28-7 vs. Hawaii
What’s left: at UNLV (Q1), vs. San Diego State (Q4), vs. Nevada (Q4), at San Jose State (Q3), at Wyoming (Q4), vs. Oregon State (Q3)
19. Army
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (0-0)
Q3 (0-0)
Q4 (7-0): W 42-7 vs. Lehigh, W 24-7 at FAU, W 37-14 vs. Rice, W 42-14 at Temple, W 49-7 at Tulsa, W 44-10 vs. UAB, W 45-28 vs. ECU
What’s left: vs. Air Force (Q4), at North Texas (Q3), vs. Notre Dame (Q1), vs. UTSA (Q4), vs. *Navy (Q2)
20. SMU
Q1 (0-1): L 18-15 vs. BYU
Q2 (1-0): W 34-27 at Louisville
Q3 (2-0): W 66-42 vs. TCU, W 40-10 at Stanford
Q4 (3-0): W 29-24 at Nevada, W 59-7 vs. Houston Baptist, W 42-16 vs. Florida State
What’s left: at Duke (Q2), vs. Pitt (Q1), vs. Boston College (Q3), at Virginia (Q3), vs. California (Q3)
21. Illinois
Q1 (0-1): L 21-7 at Penn State
Q2 (1-0): W 31-24 at Nebraska
Q3 (1-0): W 21-7 vs. Michigan
Q4 (4-0): W 45-0 vs. Eastern Illinois, W 23-17 vs. Kansas, W 30-9 vs. Central Michigan, W 50-49 vs. Purdue
What’s left: at Oregon (Q1), vs. Minnesota (Q3), vs. Michigan State (Q3), at Rutgers (Q3), vs. Northwestern (Q4)
22. Navy
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (0-0)
Q3 (1-0): W 56-44 vs. Memphis
Q4 (5-0): W 49-21 vs. Bucknell, W 38-11 vs. Temple, W 41-18 at UAB, W 34-7 at Air Force, W 51-17 vs. Charlotte
What’s left: vs. Notre Dame (Q1), at Rice (Q4), at East Carolina (Q4), vs. *Army (Q1)
23. Ole Miss
Q1 (0-1): L 29-26 at LSU
Q2 (1-0): W 27-3 at South Carolina
Q3 (2-1): W 40-6 at Wake Forest, W 52-13 vs. Georgia Southern, L 20-17 vs. Kentucky
Q4 (2-0): W 76-0 vs. Furman, W 52-3 vs. Middle Tennessee
What’s left: vs. Oklahoma (Q3), at Arkansas (Q2), vs. Georgia (Q1), at Florida (Q2), vs. Mississippi State (Q4)
24. Missouri
Q1 (0-1): L 41-10 at Texas A&M
Q2 (1-0): W 30-27 vs. Vanderbilt
Q3 (1-0): W 27-21 vs. Boston College
Q4 (4-0): W 51-0 vs. Murray State, W 38-0 vs. Buffalo, W 45-3 at UMass, W 21-17 vs. Auburn
What’s left: at Alabama (Q1), vs. Oklahoma (Q3), at South Carolina (Q2), at Mississippi State (Q4), vs. Arkansas (Q2)
25. UNLV
Q1 (0-0)
Q2 (0-1): L 44-41 vs. Syracuse
Q3 (3-0): W 27-7 at Houston, W 23-20 at Kansas, W 33-25 at Oregon State
Q4 (3-0): W 72-14 vs. Utah Tech, W 59-14 vs. Fresno State, W 50-34 at Utah State
What’s left: vs. Boise State (Q2), at Hawaii (Q4), vs. San Diego State (Q4), vs. San Jose State (Q3), vs. Nevada (Q4)
* denotes game that will be played after the CFP field has been announced
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