Central Florida deserved a playoff bid

The 2018-19 college football season is coming to an end but there is still one week left to determine the best team. At the end of every season, four teams are chosen to play in the college football playoffs.

This is the fifth year of the playoffs, and this has been one of the most controversial years with the team that was chosen for the fourth spot. The first three spots were won by the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Clemson Tigers, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish who all went undefeated in the regular season.

The final spot had four true contenders: the Oklahoma Sooners, Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Central Florida Knights. All four teams made a reasonable case for why they deserve the final spot but it was ultimately given to the Sooners.

The committee was wrong.

Oklahoma and Ohio State both only lost one game this season, but each had their own problems throughout the season.

Ohio State’s key reason they were not included was because of their 29 point loss to a very mediocre Purdue Boilermakers team that finished with a 6-6 record.

Oklahoma’s one loss occurred against the Texas Longhorns who they later beat in their conference championship, but Oklahoma has had a lot of defensive struggles throughout the season, giving up 30 or more points in six different games.

Georgia has already received two losses in the season which almost guaranteed the Bulldogs would not make the playoffs, as a two loss team has never made the playoffs before.

Out of the four teams, the Knights were the only team that went undefeated, yet the other teams were ranked below them, and the Knights were overall the most consistent team as a whole this season.

The Knights have managed to secure two straight undefeated regular seasons and winning their conference championship both seasons, but have now been left out the playoffs both years.

Even though Central Florida’s schedule has not been the most competitive, they made up for it by keeping a very consistent offense scoring 30 or more points in every game they played, one of very few teams to do so.

The main concern the playoff committee had with the Knights is that in neither season have they played a top 20 ranked team in the nation.

The only ranked team the Knights defeated this season was the Cincinnati Bearcats who are now unranked.

Scheduling ranked opponents is a hard task for Central Florida because they are not in a power five conference, so ranked teams outside of those are not common and they can only schedule up to four out of conference games in a season.

Knights

Central Florida has tried striking deals with teams such as Florida or Florida State to have a home and home series but has only received a two for one series.