Kalani Sitake elected not to campaign for BYU’s College Football Playoff inclusion during the regular season. But with the Cougars playing in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday, he’s decided to share all of his thoughts on the matter.
Considering BYU is 11-1 yet ranked No. 11 in the CFP rankings — behind a number of two-loss teams — BYU’s newly-extended head coach isn’t happy about how his team has been treated by the CFP committee.
“I’m just going to be honest, it’s a little disrespectful,” Sitake said on “BYU Sports Nation” Wednesday morning.
During the past two playoff ranking reveal shows on ESPN, there was very little discussion regarding BYU’s candidacy despite other teams ranked lower than the Cougars receiving plenty of chatter.
Additionally, the broadcast showed a number of graphics comparing the resumes of bubble teams, but noticeably excluding BYU and Utah.
“If your job is to put the comparisons up there, but you leave the BYU graphic out and you’re comparing other schools, and then last week when you go nine through 15 and you put them all up except you subtract BYU and Utah, it seems like that’s kind of maybe done on purpose and maybe a committee shouldn’t be doing that on purpose, you know, in my opinion,” Sitake said.
“And if your job is to honestly compare it, then don’t leave us out of the conversation.”
Should the Cougars win on Saturday, they would clinch an automatic CFP berth. Without a victory, however, their fate would lie solely in the hands of the committee, along with a number of teams who weren’t in conference championship games.
“Last year, I felt like we didn’t belong in the conversation because we weren’t in the (Big 12) championship game. And now there’s teams that aren’t in the championship game that are sitting there waiting to see if they’re going to advance or move back (in the rankings). And they have no say in it, just watching other teams play,” Sitake said. “I said it before, they should all play a game then. If teams aren’t going to play in a championship game, but they’re going to be in the playoff, they should all play a 13th game.
“... You can’t just say one thing and then change the game as you’re looking and seeding the playoff teams,” Sitake said. “And with that being said, you know, we’re 11-1, and we’re the only power conference team that’s playing for a championship that’s not in the top 10 in these type of rankings. And so, figure it out, guys.”
Sitake continued, “To me, it’s like, don’t punish the team for being in the championship game, but then elevate other teams. Don’t let them have the upper hand by not playing a game. Then why would anyone want to play?”
Sitake then suggested that the CFP format would be better suited with 24 teams rather than the current 12.
“Just put the thing at 24. Let’s go to 24 like the FCS,” Sitake said. “Everybody who can play that 13th game, they don’t even have to play a championship game.
“I mean, if you’re looking at it that way, Texas Tech would win the Big 12 because of the tiebreaker, and then everybody else would actually be in the playoffs. It was a 24-team system, and we’d have more representation from our conference. I probably spoke too long on it. I just, when you don’t even put our logo up there, you don’t even talk about us, then that’s disappointing.”
BYU will face Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday at 10 a.m. MST in Arlington, Texas.
