Big East Interim Commissioner Joe Bailey Talks College Football Selection Committee

Because it’s the key to the whole thing here, right?

What’s goin on?

Just got off the phone with Big East interim commissioner Joe Bailey who, as you know was the Big East representative and sitting at at the table when all the college football playoff was going on.

Bailey said he’s fine with the way everything shook down but with respect to the Big East he – and others – insisted the league championship mean something and it will be one of the prongs used in determining the teams, strength of schedule is going to be another one along with quality of play.

Polls, slants, SEC bias, all those things Bailey breaks down right here and based on what he’s saying it looks like it could be fair but it still going to come down to who is on at the selection committee and no one knows that quite yet.

Anyway, here’s the interim Big East commish talking about the committee, really the most important element in all of this…

“The committee is going to evaluate not based on anything other than actual performance itself,” Bailey said. “And if you believe in the concept that the group is smarter than the smartest person in the group then there won’t be one person who influences anybody. The group will end up making the decision. There is an enormous amount of studies on group thinking and how they make the wisest decisions so from my perspective anyway the committee piece plus the concentration by the committee by focusing on the quality of play ends up being a meritocracy so forget perceptions. It’s all about reality and how teams play.”

So no, poll?

“No, polls, no. Well, they’ll [the committee] create a poll themselves so people will know where they stand. When they release it? Who knows.  But it will be their evaluations. Now there is strength of schedule there’s no question about that and that will be a factor but conference champions will also be a factor. With the health of college football in general you want to make this as fair and equitable as it can be and at the end it’s a meritocracy. Whoever plays the best gets it.”

So the committee is going to evaluate all the teams, watching a lot of film? How big is this committee going to be?

“Yeah. Well, there was a lot of discussion about how big the committee is going to be. You tell me how big the NCAA basketball committee? Ten or something? The question right now is how big is a bread box? No one knows for sure but the bottom line is it’s going to be sizeable enough so that you’re going to get a variety of evaluators that are going to concentrate – on a week to week basis – on nothing but these teams and they’re not going to let high profile or any of that get in the way of evaluating the quality of play. It’s a really good result when you think about it for a second because whether you’re a coach, player or fan, in the end, you want to earn it, right? That’s the trick – to earn it.”

Are you confident the committee won’t be biased?

“It’s like going and saying ‘am I confident in the Supreme Court?’ At the end of the day I’m confident in the institution of the Supreme Court so the answer to your question is yes. I am.”