Quote:Rice estimated she watches about 14 or 15 games every week -- live on TV on Saturdays and recorded games on Sundays -- and the coaches' cut-ups throughout the week. She is the point person on the committee for Conference USA and the Big Ten. When Stanford has a home game, she will watch other games on her iPad at the stadium.

"The hardest part of our job is it's hard to get good comparisons because there's not that much head-to-head," Rice said. "If you're watching the NFL, for instance, an entire division will play another entire division. So you know, I remember last year the AFC South played the NFC West. It would have had really good comparisons of who beat whom, and that makes it easier to compare. [College football doesn't] have anything like that. Since there isn't that much head-to-head, you need a substitute for head-to-head competition. One of the things I want to know is, if a team is scoring a lot of points, are they scoring a lot of points against weak defenses? Against strong defenses? How does that compare to other teams you might be trying to rank against them?"

Ten undefeated college football teams remain this season, but the storylines so far have been upsets, a wild race in the Pac-12 and the strength of the SEC West. Some have wondered whether two teams from the SEC might make the first playoff. Without referencing any teams or conferences, Rice said conference championships will matter and "should matter," but she added that there's no pressure to have four conference title winners in the first playoff.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...-committee