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October 31, 2024 • 14 mins
Richard Clark from the College Football Playoffs joins Craig to discuss the 12 team format, what bowl game Texas may be playing in, and where the Group of 5 fits in.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Back to The Craigway Show.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Connect with Craig through the text line by text Team
Texas to eight one five three zero, followed by your message.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Standard message and data rates may apply.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
We welcome me back to our program here on sports
Radio AM thirteen one hundred the Zone, The Craigway Show.
My name is Craig Way. I do thank you very
much for joining us. Of course, this being your flagship
station for Texas Long Worn Athletics and with me serving
as the play by play voice for the Texas Longrorns,
there's obviously going to be a great deal of interest
for long Warn fans, for myself and for a lot

(00:52):
of our listeners on the possibilities of Texas reaching the
College Football Playoff for a second consecutive season. This time,
I'm the brand new world of the twelve team Playoff,
and I know a lot of folks have a lot
of questions about it. I did as well, and I
had some enlightenment yesterday by being able to link into
a webinar hosted by the new executive director of the

(01:15):
College Football Playoff, and that's Richard Clark, who joins us. Now,
rich I please, I really appreciate you taking a few
minutes to join us.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
How are you today, Hey, Craig, I'm doing great and
it's good to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I'm glad you were on our webinar yesterday. That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
It was It was an education, and I have to
say I had I cracked a smile or two when
far more learned college football journalists like Stuart Mandell and
some of the others seem to be a little bit
in the dark on a couple of things that they
were asking you questions that you did a great job.
You and Brett Daniels, who, by the way, I've known

(01:50):
for over forty years from his time at SMU and
with the Dallas Cowboys, that you were able to clarify
a lot. Have you discovered this season as you've gone
through this process that you've gotten a lot of questions
from people about things that the playoff definitely covers, but
it might not be something necessarily that folks think about

(02:12):
because they're really zeroing in on just the twelve teams
and who gets the buys and so on and so forth.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, I definitely think that as we get closer and
as people start to see their teams get more in
line with that hunt that they get more interested and
start asking more questions and warn't understand and so yeah,
but we're here to educate and try to help people
understand it so that when it happens there, they don't

(02:39):
think we're just making it up as we go.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, one of the things I found interesting was your background,
and I wanted to give you a chance to tell
folks a little bit about it, because I have seen
in the past how sometimes the best directors of conferences
or pro sports leagues or in this case, the college
football playoffs might be people who wild no sports very

(03:02):
very well and might know that particular industry very very well.
They've had a different vocation in life. And that was
certainly the case for you, wasn't it.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Absolutely. I was in the Air Force for thirty eight years.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
In fact, my last job was superintendent at the Air
Force Academy, and I retired from the Air Force on
June first, and I started at CFP on June fourth.
But it's been a great transition for me.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I loved my Air Force career.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
I was a pilot for most of my career, and
then you know, after thirty eight years, I did a lot.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Of different jobs, but honestly in this job.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
You know, my last job, I thought about getting ready
for war every day that I woke up. Now I
wake up and I think about college football, and I
love it.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I love everything about this job.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
I would say in some collegiate communities, I might look
at it in similar tact in terms of combat, but
I did.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I thought one point.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
You made right out of the gate that I think
is very very important is that for people who don't
understand this, that the way the committee is going to
go about starting next Tuesday to rank the teams is
no different than they've done in the past, at least initially, right.
I mean, we're not talking about the twelve, we're talking
about twenty five.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
The way they're going to operate, Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Their number one job is to rank the twenty five
best teams in college football, and that is their job
for the first five sessions that we have. That's what
they do. It only gets different the last session last
year they chose four teams and seeded four teams into
the playoffs. This year they'll see twelve teams in so

(04:46):
that's where it gets different, But their core job stays
the same.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
They're were the twenty five best teams.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, and then, of course, one of the biggest wrinkles
I think, and you can feel free to expand on
this is I've mentioned on many occasions on this program
and on the Texas Long Run broadcast that I've never
ever heard as much conversations about the Group of five
schools the G five conferences as I have this year,

(05:14):
that of course being since there's a spot there for
a G five, since it'll be the five highest rated champions.
And I did want to give you a chance to
expand on this because there seems to be a little
bit confusion for folks who don't know about you know,
if a G five team is ranked only twenty first,
they're still getting in the playoff if of the highest

(05:36):
ranked fifth conference champion, correct.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's correct.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
So the way it works is we'll take the five
highest ranked conference champions and they will be automatic qualifiers
into the playoff bracket. Then we'll take the next seven
at large. Now here's the thing about those five champions, though,
the first four we'll get an audio buy and they
will be seated one, two, three, and four. That fifth one,

(06:04):
though regardless of where they if they were seated or
if they were ranked outside of twelve, then they will
be seated at number twelve. If they were ranked inside
of twelve, they'll be seated.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Where they were ranked.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
So we will have that fifth champion in regardless of
where they're ranked, they're going to be in the seating
and in the bracket.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Richie brought up something else that I had not heard,
and then I know there were a couple of reporters
who asked you is a follow up on this about
the possibility, or at least the rumination that some schools
might have about whether they would be in position as
a let's say they were seated five, six, seven, or eight,

(06:49):
which would be first round host sites, but that for
whatever reason, be it facility, I think you brought up,
hotel space, whatever, might not be in a position to
host in their actual stadium lot as a higher seated
team could elect to go to an alternate site, maybe
an NFL stadium within a reasonable driving distance something like that.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's right, you know, we're not we're not in that
situation right now. But let's just say that there was
a team whose stadium was being renovated. This is purely hypothetical,
and they were seated one of five, six, seven, or eight.
Then if they couldn't host a game there was or

(07:29):
they didn't have adequate space, then we would give them
the opportunity to find a suitable stadium, whether it's you know,
maybe it's an NFL stadium nearby, maybe it's another university
stadium nearby, but we want them to be able to
still have that home field advantage, but we would give

(07:49):
them that opportunity to work with us to find a
better and a suitable alternate so it could happen. Right now,
I think we're in a pretty place with the teams
that are still in contention, and you know, we're talking
twenty teams or so maybe twenty five teams that we're
looking at. But right now we're in a good place.

(08:10):
But I'll just say this, it doesn't have to be stadium.
Maybe it's hotel space, maybe it's suitable practice field. Because
they're a Northern tier school, so there could be a
lot of things that would make a team go. You know,
we'd rather do this in a different locale so that
we could appropriately host a championship game.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Good point.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
So visiting a Rich Clark, executive director of the College
Football Playoff here on sports Radio AM thirteen under this
own Ridge. There was another I think key point that
you addressed a lot of questions about, and that was
the bull sites. Once the playoff advances to its quarterfinals,
as we just discussed, the higher seeded five, six, seven,

(08:51):
and eight teams would host the twelve, eleven, ten, and
nine teams respectively in the first round. Then it would
advance to the quarterfinals where the Bulls come in.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
In those quarterfinals.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Side are in Atlanta for the Peach Bowl, in Arizona,
for the Fiesta Bowl, in New Orleans, for the Sugar Bowl,
in Pasadena, for the Rose Bowl. And there was a
lot of questions about who gets slotted where if they're
winning that and the impression I got you can clarify
this if it needs some clarification, was that for higher

(09:24):
seeded teams at the top, it was going to be
more toward first and foremost bowl tie ins I guess
over the next year or so and then geography from there.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, that's right. So for the next two years.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
There's still contracts with certain conferences with the bowls, and
so you know, the SECS tied to the Sugar Bowl.
If there was an SEC team in that first round,
then we have to honor their contract for the next
two years. But then after the contracts are honored, they're

(09:57):
bolt tie ins are honored. Then it's about proximity of
the higher seeded team. So whatever bowl is closest to
their home to make it easy for their fans, easiest
for their fans to travel to, that's the bowl we
would tie them to.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, And I guess again, for anybody that had any
question about this and the reason why I bring this
up rich down here, there are a lot of folks
who were, you know, long worm fans who like to
think ahead and play ahead or whatever. If the team
manages to make it into the playoff, and they were
talking about, oh, well, the SEC championship game would be
in Atlanta, then maybe they'd be in the Peach Bowl,
and then they'd be in the Cotton Bowl. But it
doesn't necessarily work that way. Using your example from last year, Michigan,

(10:35):
because they were geographically closer to Dallas than Miami for
the semifinal, would go to Dallas, and if Texas where
the two seed in that case, they would go to
the Orange Bowl. So the geography comes in the play
for the higher seeds.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Correct, that's right after I'll say, after the bowl contract
the contractual tieser met, then it's about geography for the
higher seed.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
The other thing that I've found interesting, and I know
you can shed light on this is with regard two matchups.
Once the committee, which is, you know, ranking the teams
every week starting next Tuesday, all the way up when
they select the twelve team field. There were two questions
directed at you from reporters with regard to avoiding rematches, saying,

(11:26):
if two teams, say five and six, are very very close,
might the committee look at it differently to prevent say
a rematch between whatever Ohio State, Penn State, or whoever
it might be, a Texas Georgia, whoever might be. But
you were pretty plain spoken in saying that's not the
committee's job, right, They're not looking at avoiding rematches because
I almost get the feeling that rematches in a twelve

(11:47):
team playoff may be inevitable anyway.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, you're right, Craig, and you're right too. It's not
their job to avoid rematches. They're going to rank order
those teams as they see it, one to twenty five,
and then they're gonna see them in accordance with the
protocols that we have, and if those protocols drive some rematches,
then so be it.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
You know, And honestly, as possible.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
You could see three teams, right, you could a team
could they could face each other in the preseason or
in the regular season, then see each other in the
conference championship, then see each other again in the playoffs. Yeah,
so it could happen. But it's not the committee's job
really to avoid those. But but they got to let

(12:32):
them play it out. So that's how it's gonna that.
You know, we'll we'll take it as it comes.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Let me ask you one other thing, and this is this.
When this question was coming up, Uh, it made me
think of how all for my kids at one time
or another when they were growing up, would try to
present the most outlandish scenario to me and say, well,
what if this happened? Is this kid does this? And like,
ultimately I'm saying, look, it's probably not gonna happen, okay,
And in the scenario always refer is if someone asked

(13:03):
you that you know, what would happen if you don't
have a group of five team ranked in the top
twenty five, and I think that the obvious answer is
there's probably going to be. But even if there wasn't,
there's a metric system in place for doing all of this,
in compiling the data, correct.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
It's probably not going to happen. Correig, No, now you're right.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
So what would happen if that were the case and
we didn't have a fifth conference champion in the top
twenty five? Then we would continue to rank those conference
champions to get the best of the remaining wherever they
were ranked, and so the highest ranked of the remaining

(13:52):
conference champions would be the fifth one that would go in. Great,
so we would just, you know, even if they came
out to be ranked let's say twenty seven, and you
know we'd have to keep you know, they would still
go in. They were just the highest ranked of the
remaining five champions.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
That's terrific stuff, great insight, Rich. I greatly appreciate the time,
and it's great work with the committee so far, and
I'm looking forward to seeing the first rankings next Tuesday,
as a lot of other fans are as well. Thanks
so much for spending a few minutes with us on this,
and I'll look forward to seeing you down the road.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah, thanks Greg.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
I appreciate you having me and giving us a chance to,
you know, educate and talk to people about what's going on.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
So we're excited and we'll see you down the road.
All right, sounds good.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Rich. Thanks great.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
That's Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff.
Cam will rejoin us. We've got some pro basketball and
football notes coming up. Talk about the Cowboys when we
continue on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of
the iHeartRadio app.
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