Famous Mike Leach rant resonates amid College Football Playoff’s BYU controversy
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- CFP ranking places 11-1 BYU at No.11, sparking debate over selection criteria.
- Stakeholders and social media question committee logic after ESPN omitted BYU.
- Mike Leach’s 2017 rant resurfaces, criticizing committee selection over on-field results.
It may not generate the highest television ratings this weekend, but all eyes will be on the Big 12 championship game.
That’s because of the controversy surrounding the College Football Playoff rankings and BYU. The Cougars, 11-1, are No. 11 in the latest rankings, behind Oklahoma (No. 8), Alabama (No. 9) and Notre Dame (No. 10). All three have two losses.
Miami fans also aren’t happy that the Hurricanes, 10-2, are behind the Irish despite beating Notre Dame this season.
Game results apparently are not what matters most to the committee, although it certainly couldn’t overlook the Cougars if they win the Big 12 title game (one would hope). A loss, however, seemingly would torpedo BYU’s playoff hopes.
The BYU ranking has dominated talk this week, partly because of an ESPN graphic that left out the Cougars.
Then there was a discussion about whether the Cougars could “steal” a playoff berth from Miami or Notre Dame. BYU responded by comparing the football team’s résumé, with other contenders.
The Big 12 weighed in as well, highlighting the team’s record, strength of schedule and wins vs. current top-25 teams, all ahead of Notre Dame’s mark.
The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman unloaded on the CFP committee in a piece with the headline, “The College Football Playoff rankings reveal has become a clown show by any metric.” He was rankled by Miami being behind the Irish.
“The rankings don’t need to be announced at midseason or even in November if all they appear to do is lock the committee into positions it can’t seem to get out of,” he wrote.
“The committee just moves the goalposts or invents some other bogus metric instead of starting with a clean slate. For years, we heard of all sorts of baffling things like ‘game control,’ but does that matter to the CFP now? Did it matter back then? Who knows? ...
“Well, maybe BYU will knock off Texas Tech to win the Big 12 title this weekend, opening the door for the committee to leave both Notre Dame and Miami out of the Playoff. That would do the CFP and the people who have to explain it a big favor.”
Mike Leach’s committee rant
That message echoed talk about the committee on social media and sports-talk shows. And I couldn’t help but recall what the late Mike Leach once had to say when the playoff was just four teams.
Leach, who died three years ago, coached at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State and railed against a playoff field being selected by a committee during a 2017 rant.
“That’s a very clever approach,” Leach said at the time while at Washington State. “I mean, that’s such a brilliant approach, that’s why everybody does it that way. I mean, nobody does it that way. If we’re so smart, wouldn’t all the other sports say, ‘You know what? Let’s have a committee, because why not?’ Because, you know, we’re American, we love committees. Let’s get us a committee. Well, who should be on the committee? Well, I don’t know. This guy’s a good guy. Let’s have him on the committee. Well, I mean, there’s people on the committee that don’t even have remote associations with football, nor have they at any level other than being a fan, but you know what? Let’s have them on a committee. Why not?
“I mean, it’d be fun. We’d go to that resort, we could talk, we could hang out at dinner, and then we’ll decide which four teams should go. Because, you know why? We don’t need to solve this on the field, because we’re the ones that know. And then, you know, if we’re going to do it that way, we should just ask them at the beginning of the season, just go ahead and you guys vote on it. Figure out one, two, three and four, and why even have the games?
“To me, it’s not a playoff. There’s nothing playoff about it.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 9:03 AM.
