BYU Cougars

Report: Group of 5 schools considering own playoff

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:16 p.m. ET

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Sports Illustrated, SI Wire/Sports Illustrated

Officials of college football's non-five power conferences are considering the possibility of creating a playoff that is specific for those schools, reports ESPN.com's Brett McMurphy.

The current Group of Five conferences consists of Conference USA, American Athletic, Mid-American, Mountain West and the Sun Belt conferences, with BYU, Army and Massachusetts serving as independents.

"It's time to have a realistic conversation about creating a playoff for the Group of 5," Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier said to ESPN. "Why not?

"There is absolutely no ability for us (teams in the Group of 5) to be in that national title conversation. That's just reality. Anyone that says we can: that's a flat-out lie," Frazier added.

American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said he is not in favor of that idea at all.

"The answer is an emphatic no," Aresco said. "We compete for national championships like anyone else in FBS, including the Power 5, and have no interest in any kind of separate championship."

In the current College Football playoff setup, the school in the Group of Five that has the highest ranking and is a conference champion is guaranteed a spot in one of the New Year's Six bowl games.

This season, Western Michigan finished 13–0 and 15th in the College Football Playoff Top 25 and will play Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl.

No Group of Five school has even come close to cracking the four-team playoff in the three years of its existence.

"The College Football Playoff is great and I love the committee, but their focus is on the national championship for the Power 5 teams and not focused on getting Group of 5 (teams) in the national conversation," Frazier said.

- Scooby Axson

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