Boise State makes the College Football Playoff as the Big 12’s 1st round bye chances disappear

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The first big win of the college football postseason goes to Boise State. The Broncos captured the Mountain West Conference title Friday night and earned their spot in the sport’s first 12-team playoff.

The losers? Well, there was UNLV, which fell 21-7 to Heisman hopeful Ashton Jeanty and the Broncos in the conference title game. But more than that, it was the Big 12 that saw one of its paths to a first-round bye in the playoffs blocked by Jeanty and Co.

Boise State will hang on to or improve on its no. 10 ranking in the final College Football Playoff rankings to be released Sunday. That would almost certainly put the Broncos no worse than the fourth-best conference title record and in line for a first-round bye.

The Big 12 title game on Saturday pits no. 15 Arizona State vs. No. 16 Iowa State.

The winner is in the playoffs. But the only realistic way back for either team to get a bye ( and the extra $4 million that comes with it ) would be to combine that win — preferably a convincing one — with a loss to the Atlantic Coast Conference-leading, No. 8 SMU, which plays no. 17 Clemson.

The 12 Great Commissioners and Iowa State’s athletic director are among those who are already crying foul. When the title games are over (Saturday) and the brackets are revealed (Sunday), they won’t be the only ones.

The rest of the drama involves Alabama, SMU and Miami (sort of)

Barring something completely unexpected, it will take either a loss by SMU, a change of heart by the selection committee, or both to knock Alabama out of the bracket. If the Tide makes it, the Southeastern Conference will have four teams in the playoffs.

Since the selection committee ranked the Crimson Tide at no. 11 last week, one spot ahead of Miamiit looks very much like the tide will be ahead of the Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The way last week’s rankings shook out meant Alabama was in and Miami was out.

Not surprisingly, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who saw undefeated Florida State get passed by Alabama in last year’s four-team bracket, is not happy.

“Committee decisions should be based on facts, not opinion,” said Phillips, whose talking points include Miami’s two losses compared to Alabama’s three. “Not on the league you’re from, not on the geography of where you sit, but on your resume: What have you done? … Who did you lose to and who did you beat?”

Locks and close locks

Boise State’s bid is a done deal.

Oregon, the top-ranked and only undefeated team in the country, is also in the running. But Saturday’s match against no. 3 Penn State is for the Big Ten title and a first-round bye.

If Penn State wins, then there is an argument that the Nittany Lions could end up with the top seed.

In the SEC, it is no. 2 Texas vs. no. 5 Georgia. Unfortunately, Bevo will not be in the building. The winner gets a bye and a championship. The loser should still be in, but if that loser is Georgia, the Dawgs could be headed for the first round.

Depending on how the brackets shape up, these teams could facing each other three times this season.

Dust up at home

A handful of teams are not playing this weekend and have little to worry about. No. 4 Notre Dame should get a home game. (Perhaps the Irish, an independent, should also get a bye, but that’s a topic for another day.)

No. 9 Indiana, one of four Big Ten teams projected to make the playoff, will likely be on the road.

Sometimes there is the case of no. 6 Ohio State and no. 7 Tennessee. Last week’s projected bracket paired the 10-2 teams in a first-round matchup to be played at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio.

But their rankings flip-flopped from the road voters for the AP Top 25 placed them and the difference matters a lot. Like Ohio Stadium, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville also seats 100,000 plus and provides one of the best home field advantages in the game.

All of this prompted Vols athletic director Danny White to reconsider, asking for a return to computer-based rankings used more than a decade ago in a previous iteration of the postseason (Bowl Championship Series, or BCS).

“I would criticize the fact that we don’t have a more objective, computer-based ranking system that just makes it very clear,” White said. in an interview with UT’s radio personalities. “Everybody understands what the parameters are and it is what it is. I think it would leave a lot less consternation on the back end that we’re seeing across the country right now.”

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AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard contributed to this report.

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