Jim Delany takes a perceived dig at the 2012 national champions
Jim Delany isn't making a whole lot of friends in the SEC.
Earlier this month Delany proposed that the potential college football playoff include the top four conference champions as long as they're ranked in the top six of the national rankings.
Of course, this plan has been about as popular as the movie "John Carter" (even with Tim Riggins starring in it). But Delany hasn't stopped his pursuit of having his plan heard and told the Associated Press that he wants to reward conference champions because he doesn't have a lot of regard for teams that don't win their conference. More specifically, Delany doesn't have a lot of regard for national champion Alabama, which not only didn't win its conference, it also didn't win its division.
[Related: Alabama-Arkansas tops list of best September games]
"I don't have a lot of regard for that team," Delany told The Associated Press. "I certainly wouldn't have as much regard for that team as I would for someone who played nine conference games in a tough conference and played a couple out-of-conference games on the road against really good opponents. If a poll doesn't honor those teams and they're conference champions, I do.
"Some people think it should just be the top four teams; some people think it should just be the four highest-rated champions. I was just floating some ideas of how you might have a hybrid where champions were respected and there was still room for at-large."
Of course, had Delany's plan been in place this past season, Alabama still would have made the four-team playoff because there were not enough conference champions ranked in the top six.
Delany said he doesn't like just picking the top four schools in the polls because the polls can be so subjective. He insists winning your conference and being ranked in the top six nationally — presumably after at least one or two decent nonconference wins — would allow the cream to rise to the top.
[Dan Wetzel: FSU trustee may have lit fuse on move to Big 12]
"The polls don't always measure strength of schedule," Delany said. "Some conferences are playing nine games, some are playing eight. The Pac-12 is playing nine and then to go out and play a round-robin game against us, that's 10 and some of them are going to play Notre Dame - that's 11 difficult games. If they're ranked fifth in the country and they won a conference championship, I think that's quite an accomplishment. Some teams don't even win their own division. They started off highly in the rankings, lose early, don't play a championship game and they might end up at four."
Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows my beef with the polls and knows that I think all of the polls should begin in mid-October. Preseason polls reward last year's work and a pretty depth chart, but not actual current results.
While I don't necessarily agree with Delany's playoff plan, I do agree that its unfair that some teams earn an unfair advantage because of where they start the season. I think Oklahoma State fans might claim the same thing.
However, if Oklahoma State doesn't lose to Iowa State and subsequently lose its spot in the national championship, perhaps the BCS doesn't start to reexamine how it determines its national champion.
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