By William Armstead
Every College Football Playoff (CFP) selection cycle brings about the same arguments every year for the teams that fall just short of being selected. With teams like Tulane and James Madison earning spots for 2025, people argue whether Group of Five programs can actually be competitive in the CFP or if the skill gap is too much for those teams.
To begin, the Group of Five conferences include the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW), and Sun Belt Conference (SBC). Tulane of the AAC and James Madison of the SBC both won their conferences and have outstanding records. Success during the season does matter, but bigger schools have more advantages. Power Five teams have larger NIL budgets to pay players, elite blue-chip recruiting prospects, and a high-level strength of schedule. Those advantages often show up when playoff games begin.
Fans claim they have already seen an example of a Group of Five school not being able to compete. Boise State earned national attention last season with star running back and Heisman candidate Ashton Jeanty, but when they faced off against the Penn State Nittany Lions, they could not keep up. The loss highlighted the gap between elite Power Five programs and the best of the Group of Five. It remains to be seen if Tulane or James Madison will suffer the same fate. Tulane is up against Ole Miss, whom they already lost to 45-10 earlier in the season. James Madison is matched against the 1-loss Oregon Ducks.
With JMU and Tulane in the CFP, teams from power conferences are often left on the outside. 2-loss Vanderbilt, who plays in the best conference in college football, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), did not make it in which drew criticism. Same for Notre Dame, who play powerhouse Power Five teams every season. However, these teams are not chosen over Group of Five programs whose paths to strong records are much easier.
If Tulane and JMU prove not to be competitive in this year’s CFP, I recommend a separate playoff for conferences not in the Power Five. A Group of Five playoff would allow teams like Tulane, James Madison, and Boise State to compete on a similar playing field and allow for exciting postseason games instead of setting them up to not even have a chance.