While I don't agree with the praise heaped upon her, I do agree with the title, the first four sentences/questions and the last.

Condoleezza Rice has no business on the College Football Playoff committee

Condoleezza Rice? On the first College Football Playoff committee?

Seriously?
No disrespect to the distinguished former Secretary of State, but have the people in charge of this process lost their minds?

Rice is qualified to do a lot more things than most people, perhaps up to and including running the country, but she has no business helping to decide the four teams that'll have a shot at the national title starting in 2014.

It's not personal. It's just that college football is not her business.

It may be one of her passions. It may be a game she's loved since childhood. It may even be a small part of her DNA as a Birmingham native.

But college football has never been how she's made her living. She's never spent day after day, week after week, year after year, with college football foremost on her mind.

You can say she's had more important things to do, which is true in the big picture, but that's the point. If you're going to be a member of that committee, college football should be the most important thing you do.

You should be consumed with watching it, studying it, spending time around the people who play it and coach it. It's not necessary that you played it or coached it yourself to understand it, but having been in the arena doesn't hurt.

The players and coaches who find themselves on the short list of potential playoff teams next season deserve nothing less than the undivided attention of football professionals.

Rice, who teaches political science at Stanford, is a lot of things. A scholar. An intellectual. A class act. She's a shining example of how a young woman from Birmingham, Alabama, can overcome any number of obstacles to become one of the most powerful and respected individuals in the world.

What she's not, and never has been, is a football professional. Every single member of the first College Football Playoff committee, at the very least, should have that distinction on his resume.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013 ... usine.html

Er, how is it that a "decision" is made about who gets a shot as opposed to actually earning it by beating everybody else?

lol, I'm not really sure oskar. They changed all of that a while back. Maybe someone in here who really follows it can tell you.

Sounds like an ideal opportunity for brown envelopes full of cash.

Actually, I think she's a great pic. She knows more about football than most people. She was looking to become the Pres of the SF 49'ers at one time. I have no problem with it!

As long as she's not the only woman on the committee, I'm cool with it. (Mostly because I don't care).

There are millions of us women who've been lifelong football fans and who know a lot about the game who aren't being asked. LOL!!!!

LOL, I know a lot about football too. It's a religion in the South, ya know? That doesn't mean I'd know jack squat about this. Does anyone know why they need a committee for playoff decisions? Stupid, imo.

A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.
Fred Allen

A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done.
Fred Allen

"A committee is best composed of three people, with one who is always sick and another who is always absent."

Does anyone know why they need a committee for playoff decisions? Stupid, imo.

As I understand it they are changing the way in which the participants in the National Championship game are selected. Currently its based partly on computerised rankings and partly on the votes of an extended group of Coaches and sports commentators etc. The problem with it, as it stands is that there is just the one game based on the selection, even though there are lots of teams that could stake some kind of claim. And, as you might expect happens some times, the computer is hardly infallible.

So, for instance, last year Alabama (ranked no.2, having lost 1 game) faced Notre Dame (ranked no.1, having lost no games). There was quite an upset about that, with teams like Oregon and Georgia (and quite a few others) also having a strong claim to play Notre Dame. But then the real weakness of the system showed itself.

Alabama made mincemeat of Notre Dame, winning 45-14 and coasting for most of the second half. Notre Dame might have won more games during the year, but their schedule was nowhere near as tough as Alabama's.

They are now moving to a system where the top four teams are selected by this committee and then play off to see who plays in the championship game. Its a definite improvement in my opinion, and going to the top 8 would be even better.

How else would you select the top 4 teams except through some kind of committee?

It's amazing how many years we lived without a Super Bowl in College Football. All the other bowl games were sufficient.

The NFC East in the NFL is pathetic. There are probably 3 teams in the AFC East and NFC West better than any NFC East team, but the structure is winner of each division and 2 wild cards make the playoffs, so a weak team from the NFC East will be in play and some better team will be bounced.

The NFL lives without a committee which I think allows for more subjectivity than any computer. LOL

All college teams are in the same league separated into geographical sections areas (travel costs)and they fight their way to the top.

yeah, what oskar said. The AP and coaches poll was a stupid thing too and very subjective.

A committee decision is not one iota better than the poll rankings from before. Highly subjective. Let the records speak for themselves.

Let them slug it out all the way to the top. Wins/losses. Period.

"All college teams are in the same league separated into geographical sections areas (travel costs)and they fight their way to the top".

Too many teams, too many games, no matter how you did the division.

Not really. (IMO)
How many soccer teams n the UK? Spain? France? Germany?

Lots Oskar (although nowhere near as many as the US college teams). Besides, those are professional teams, not college students.
With roughly 2400 4 year institutions in the US, most with a football team, you'd have to have around 200 different divisions.

And to do it you'd have to have system of leagues (a lot of different levels), which means there would have to be a system of promotion/demotion from one to the other. That could get VERY complex.

It's why god invented computers.

Then God should of done a better job!

After all, the ranking of Notre Dame as no.1 in 2012 was done by a computer.

Computers aren't very good at thinking yet but they can certainly analyse, collate and/or sort data which is the problem with so many teams.

Germany has about 11.500 communities. Each community has a couple of villages. If a village has at least 11 men who can walk without crutches, they have a soccer team which plays against the neighboring villages.
There are also more than 2065 towns and cities in Germany. Each small town has at least one soccer club, each medium sized town has at least one club in each district. Each larger city has at least a club in each of the suburbs, former but now incorporated villages, etc.

In my estimate there are at least one million soccer teams in Germany.
82 million Germans, half of them men>>>41 million.
10 million are toddlers or seniors with beer gutts.
Leaves 31 million potential players. We need 11 players, that's 11 million in 1 million teams.
Leaves 10 million club managers and another 10 million playing in front of the TV with a beer in their hand.
That's about right.

LMAO!!! ~ everyone, meet Jabra ... our very own human computer, who can "analyse, collate and/or sort data" in a flash! ~

Sooz

Yep Jab. But they don't all take part in national or international competitions.

That system is the reason why in 1999 to 2001 there were three teams from Munich in the top league, the Bundesliga, FC Bayern, 1860 Munich and the SpVgg Unterhaching, a tiny suburb in the South of Munich.

Tell me more about why teams from little villages (or suburbs) don't compete nationally or internationally!

I didn't mention suburbs (and for a very good reason).

I suppose you could have a system like that and it could work pretty well. I'm still not sure how you'd go about deciding on the National championship though.

Easy. The SpVgg Unterhaching played quite good in 2000 and with a little luck they could have been in the top ranking of the Bundesliga, playing powerhouses like FC Bayern, on both team's home turf perhaps for the national championship.
It wasn't to be and now they are back 3 leagues down.