New to the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee this season, Bobby Johnson disclosed one of his key factors for ranking teams, the "eye test."
Speaking with ESPN, the retired college football coach said he thinks there are aspects of teams that cannot be measured by statistics.
"It always gets down to who can execute and who can get the job done when the pressure's on. To me, that's the big thing," he said. "That's looking at the coaching staff, that's looking at the players, the kickers, everything. There's a lot of stuff to look at, but when it gets down to it, the old eye test is probably the most important."
However, that will not mean he will throw out all hard evidence.
"I don't want to get too involved with statistics," Johnson told ESPN. "I like to watch games and then I'll go back and look at statistics and see what may have been the big difference in that one team winning or losing."
The CFP was largely successful in its inaugural season, save for the controversial snub of both the Big 12's co-champions. Regardless, the CFP worked out as well as anyone involved could have hoped.
During the offseason, the Big 12 decided against adding a championship game for football, which Johnson admitted would factor into his rankings.
"I think it's important because there's a lot of pressure on those two teams who are fighting for a conference championship," he told ESPN. "If one of them or both of them are undefeated, or one of them has one loss, they put everything on the line as far as their opportunity to go to the playoff. It's almost a playoff within the playoff.
"If they've done well enough to get into the championship game of their conference, then they're obviously a very good team, and it's only fair that if they win another high-quality game they should be rewarded for it."
