The 2015 regular season is already in the books (and the bowl season underway), and congratulations go out to the four chosen ones - the four teams who did not win quarterfinal games to advance to the semifinals of the playoffs but rather will be playing in the semifinals because they were picked (behind closed doors, of course) to play in them by a committee of people who supposedly are experts. So while Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State, and Oklahoma will be playing on New Year's Eve, it's tough luck for Stanford, the Pac-12 champion. Sorry, Stanford, it doesn't matter if your team is good enough to be the national champion. The experts have decided that it isn't, and that's that. At least you had the chance to be picked for the playoffs. That's more than you can say for the teams in the Little 5 conferences.Oops. Excuse me, that's right, the AAC, SBC, MWC, CUSA, and MAC aren't called the Little 5. They are officially known as the "Group of 5". That's because "Group of 5" sounds less disrespectful than "Little 5". But call them whatever you want, they're the have-nots of the FBS, and no team from one of them will ever even be considered for a playoff spot as long as the playoffs include only 4 teams. The best they can hope for is to claim the one bid (out of 12 total) reserved for a Little 5 team to one of the big New Year's 6 bowl games. The Houston Cougars earned that bid this season after upping their record to 12-1 with a 24-13 victory over Temple on Dec. 5 in the inaugural AAC championship game.
