Cam Newton calls for College Football Playoff to prioritize strength of schedule when deciding field

Cam Newton only wants to see certain teams in the College Football Playoff.

During his weekly appearance on ‘First Take’ on Friday, Newton went off on how the expanded field is selected for the playoff. He called it as he himself saw it in regards to some of the teams that he sees will eventually be in the bracket come Sunday.

“We have to stop. Like, bro, alright. Imma say it. A lot of people are thinking it and imma say it. Nobody wants to see SMU, nobody wants to see Arizona State, nobody wants to see Indiana, nobody wants to see Boise State – straight up,” Newtown said. “Boise State is not on the same trajectory. Arizona State is not on the same trajectory. Respectful to Indiana – I see what they was trying but, when they played Ohio State, we seen what they really are.”

“Like, okay, why do you feel this way? Alright, I’m going to be the person that’s going to be looking at the TV like this,” Newton said as he slumped over. “I don’t want to see what happened to TCU and Georgia for the national championship. I don’t want to see what happened to Oklahoma when USC was supposed to play Auburn that year.”

Newton’s case wasn’t just against the smaller brands in college football. He also went after Notre Dame in his rant about the CFP

The main overall point for Newton was about the strength of schedules amongst those set to be in the playoff. He doesn’t think that some of those teams have justified themselves to play against teams that he thinks are of the level of being a national champion. With that, he generally made a comparison with an example of Boise State and Georgia.

“I just think we really need to consider team’s strength of schedule when you’re talking about the national championship. Have you really earned the right to say that playing the talent that you’ve played,” Newton explained. “Boise, like, without it being Jeanty? I’m like, I don’t want to see Boise State? If Boise State were to play Georgia, would Jeanty really get off?”

It’s fair to wonder how some of the teams mentioned here are going to handle being in the playoff. They’ll all be playing the toughest, or at least one of their toughest, games of the season come kickoff in the first game of their field. However, whether a conference champion or an at-large that earned it by record, should that thought discredit them as compared to what they did to earn their spot during the regular season or conference title games?

We’ll have to see how it plays out amongst some of these teams and how they fare in the playoff. Newton is just of the thought, though, that they won’t be ready for what they’re about to face.

“I don’t want to see these things and it could have been prevented if somebody had just been honest and said, ‘Woah, hey, hey, hey, this is your weight class. Stay in your weight class. You good but you ain’t that good yet,'” Newton said. “I’m sorry if I’m ruffling feathers. I need to ruffle feathers for people to understand.”