Stanford coach advocates for 8-team playoff

IOWA CITY — Iowa and Stanford were left standing outside the gate to the College Football Playoff party Sunday. They ranked five and six, respectively, while the top four squads earned bids to the national semifinals.

Those semi-jilted football schools did pick up invitations to the Rose Bowl, where they meet Jan. 1 in Pasadena, Calif. Each stumbled at inopportune times to cost them a shot at a national championship. No. 5 Iowa (12-1) lost a grueling 16-13 game to No. 3 Michigan State (12-1) on Saturday for the Big Ten title. Stanford (11-2) clinched the Pac-12 title with a decisive 41-22 win against USC (8-5) also on Saturday.

But the Cardinal was the only Power 5 conference champion left out of the four-team tournament. Stanford lost the opener 16-6 at Northwestern (10-2), and stumbled 38-36 in mid-November to Oregon (9-3). But the Cardinal also finished 8-1 in league play and rallied to stop No. 8 Notre Dame in the regular-season finale.

Coach David Shaw, who is in his fifth year with Stanford, remains an advocate for an eight-team playoff. He said his position was formed before the current system was implemented.

'I do believe at some point it's going to be an eight-team playoff,' Shaw said Sunday in a teleconference involving the two coaches. 'I think it's going to be unavoidable. I'm not upset by any stretch of the imagination.

'I just know this year is a part of the process where you have these teams in Stanford and Iowa and Ohio State that you could make a case could be in a playoff, and it would be a phenomenal playoff. So I have no problems with where we are now. I just do believe eventually, it will become an eight-team playoff because it's the only thing that makes sense.

'We've done all this work to separate the Power 5 conferences and now to say we have four spots for Power 5 conferences, it doesn't make any sense. I think at some point we'll make it eight, but I'm fine the way it is now. To be honest, I'm excited about playing in the Rose Bowl.'

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz, who is making his first Rose Bowl appearance as a head coach, echoed Shaw's sentiments — to an extent.

'I feel really the same way,' Ferentz said. 'I can see change coming down the road. But to me, it's just fine where it is right now. I think it worked fine last year, and I think it's worked well this year.

'To David's point, if this is the consolation prize, what a deal it is for both of us. Two outstanding teams getting a chance to play together in the best bowl. We feel very, very fortunate. I think it's good for college football the way it is right now.'

Shaw, the son of longtime college football and NFL assistant coach Willie Shaw, has won three Pac-12 titles in his five years. He has three Rose Bowl appearances and also led the Cardinal to the Fiesta Bowl. But as close as Stanford has come to earning a playoff bid or a BCS title slot, Shaw's team always sat at the doorstep. That now includes this season. In four of his five years, the Cardinal was ranked in the top six, either by the BCS or the College Football Playoff selection committee, but didn't play for a title.

'I'm not going to say anything different from what I said since the playoff began, which was I think it's great,' Shaw said. 'I think the four-team playoff is great. But I've always thought it's a beginning. And I've said it over the first five or six years, what we're going to do with this thing is poke holes in it, find out what works, what doesn't work ...'

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