Hitting the Links: More Details on the Playoff Selection Process

The process through which the College Football Playoff Committee picks teams is starting to take shape. The first big news item released this past week was that the weekly rankings would not begin until October 28th of this upcoming season. To put that into clearer terms the first CFB Playoff ranking will be released on the Tuesday following the 9th week of games.

More on the voting process by the AP via ESPN:

Voting for the newest college football poll will be done using the same procedure and recusal policy used by the committee that chooses the 68-team field for NCAA men's basketball tournament. The voting will be broken down into tiers, with the panel first grouping teams and then coming to a consensus on how they should be ordered with numerous votes.

A committee member who is currently employed or compensated by a school, or who has an immediate family member at a school, will not be allowed to vote for that school.

The committee, which includes five current athletic directors, will meet in person for a day every week and their rankings will be released on Tuesday nights on ESPN.

Brett McMurphy also has a nice Q&A on the basics of the playoff selection process, who is part of the committee, and what's going on with the games this fall RIGHT HERE.

Here's another interesting nuggest on the process:

It's a five-step process: (1) Each committee member will list their top 25 teams, in no particular order. Teams listed by three or more members will remain under consideration; (2) each member will list their top six teams, in no particular order. The six teams receiving the most votes will comprise the pool for the first seeding ballot; (3) In the first seeding ballot, each member will rank those six teams -- one through six. Three teams receiving the fewest points will become the top three seeds. The three teams not seeded will be held over for the next seeding ballot; (4) each member will list the six best remaining teams, in no particular order. The three teams receiving the most votes will be added to the three teams held over to comprise the next seeding ballot; (5) Steps No. 3 and 4 will be repeated until 25 teams have been seeded. All votes will be by secret ballot. 

How is this playing out for everyone? About how you expected? Better than you thought? Are there some major errors being made already?

NATIONAL LINKS

The Pac-12 coaches don't like the SEC 8-game schedule very much.

New Penn State head coach James Franklin was in a little bit of a heat recently.

If you haven't heard yet, Jameis Winston stole some crab legs from Publix.

The SEC Network announced its early season TV schedule for your perusal.

Former 5-star QB Jake Heaps is leaving Kansas making that his second transfer.

One of the country's top JUCO quarterbacks will be heading to Louisville this summer.

The NCAA is trying to delay the O'Bannon trial.

Nick Saban said the B1G is a really good conference. In future news, Alabama will be signing a series or two with the B1G's worst teams, I'm sure.

IRISH LINKS

BGI: Mayock evaluates ND prospects

ISD: Stanford preview

NBC: Rice preview

SBT: Will NFL draft fuel ND recruiting?