12/05/2023
Before I touched on the subject of the College Football Playoff committee's decision on the schools for the four-team playoff, I wanted to see a full day of reaction from teams, schools, the national media, etc ... It has been an interesting 32 or so hours ... First of all, being an Alabama alumni I had prepared myself for the Crimson Tiide not getting in and wrote about it here ... But as soon as ESPN announced that Texas was No. 3, I knew Alabama had made it and undefeated Florida State was out ... Was it the right decision? ... Does it really matter? ... In the 10-year history of the playoffs, this was bound to happen ... Unlike professional sports which splits into divisions and sends divisional winners and wild card teams, which are established by wins and losses. to the postseason, a diverse committee of people tried to come to a consensus on who the four teams would be ... How did they do? ... Well, Georgia despite losing their first game since the SEC Championship in 2021, fell from No. 1 to sixth after losing by just three points ... Ohio State, losing just one game barely to what is now No. 1 Michigan, fell to seventh ... Personally, I think both those teams are better than Washington and would be favorites in a game against probably anyone in the Top 3 except Michigan ... But it's a waste of time arguing about this and that but one thing to remember that didn't help FSU was that two years ago ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said his conference was opposed to going to a playoff that included more than four teams ... If Phillips would have kept his mouth shut then we likely would have had a 12-game playoff this year and his Seminoles would be in ... Also, what's interesting is two of the members of the 13-person committee had strong ties to the ACC .... The committee chair, Boo Corrigan, is the athletics director at North Carolina State, and Jim Grobe, coached at Wake Forest for 13 years and was national coach of the year in 2006 when he was with the Demon Deacons ... It's interesting to see the outcry for Florida State yet both the committee's chair who currently works in the conference and a top coach who was one of the ACC's better coaches, obviously didn't feel the same ... Perhaps they realize that the conference isn't quite the same in football since Clemson's fall as the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and soon-to-be-defunct Pac 12 ... But in the end I think the biggest problem and failure of the committee was no one really knows what the rules are ... I mean what is the difference between most deserving and four best teams? ... We know that the committee can factor in the loss of a team's top player(s) but does mean more than a conference championship or undefeated season? ... We were never really told as Corrigan's after each ranking was carefully scripted ... If losing their top player meant that much, then why did the committee have FSU ranked in the Top 4 going into the conference championships? ... The committee knew star quarterback Jordan Travis was out for the season and that backup Tate Rodemaker had sustained a concussion in the last regular season game ... Still, Florida State was fourth ... I think what happened was the committee was banking hard on Georgia beating Alabama and then the decision would have been simple ... Just take the four undefeated conference champions ... But going undefeated against the rest of the SEC, Alabama beat Georgia and all of a sudden the committee the Crimson Tide had to be considered which meant so did one-loss and Big 12 champion Texas which beat the Crimson Tide ... Now the committee had to ask itself does it leave out the SEC, which has won the last four national titles and six in the history of the nine-year playoff ... So who do you take? ... Alabama, which had missed the playoffs just twice and won three of them and was a finalist in three more and now won 11 straight with perhaps the hottest quarterback in the nation or Florida State, who didn't look great in its conference championship and was done to their third-string quarterback .. Also, the Tide had beaten the committee's No. 1 team and there was no way Texas was going to be left out if Alabama was among the final four teams ... Seems like if you are looking out for the best interest of college football it was a rather easy decision ... So where now? ... Funny, but the sun came up Monday morning and the semifinals matchup of Alabama-Michigan and Washington-Texas will do well on television and tickets to both games will be tough to get ... And I have a lot of Florida State friends and I do understand where they are coming from ... But their anger, and those in the media that feel this is a travesty, should be direct that at Corrigan and the other 12 members of the committee ... Their refusal to go into the season making the college football world aware of what the rules really were, turned this into a bloody Monday ... But like everything else that makes big headlines deadline, it will be mostly forgotten when Alabama and Michigan kick off the playoffs on Jan. 1 ... Yes, college football will survive ... Score Atlanta
