“It is Unforgivable”. That was the message from the Florida State Athletic Director this past weekend. The teams that made the college football playoff this past weekend were 1. Michigan, 2.Washington, 3.Texas, 4. Alabama.
Did the committee make the right choice? Here is what the committee allegedly makes their decisions on strength of Schedule, head-to-head results, Conference Championships, Common opponents, and top 25 games. The committee determined a Power 5 school that went undefeated and won the ACC was too weak to get in over a Bama squad that had a loss.
First up the team that didn’t make it in. Florida State. Undefeated ACC champion that was left out of the college football playoff. One thing that kept them out was their QB Jordan Travis suffering a gruesome leg injury with 3 games left in the season. The ACC Championship game was a masterpiece by the Seminole defense but the offense was subpar to say the least with the third-string QB in action. They didn’t pass the eye test against the Cardinals and that most definitely played a factor. Key wins include #5 LSU in week 1, A win over #20 Duke and win over #14 Louisville. That resume is weaker than a couple on this list.
Let’s look at each team and see if they deserve to get in.
- Michigan (13-0) B10 Champ
The Wolverines played a cupcake out-of-conference schedule and really didn’t play anyone except Penn State, Ohio State, and Iowa. Penn State was ranked #10 and lost by nine, THE Ohio State was #2 when UM was #3 so that’s a quality win for the Wolverines. #16 Iowa couldn’t score their way out of a wet paper bag if they had to. The Wolverines passed the “Eye test” against Iowa securing their spot in the playoff as the 1 seed.
2. Washington (13-0) PAC-12 Champ
This one might be the most cut and dry. Five top 25 Wins and 2 top 10 Oregon. In the last year of the PAC-12 as we know it the Huskies were able to get in.
3. Texas (12-1) BIG 12 Champ
This is where it gets interesting. The Longhorns had the best Non-Conference win of the year beating SEC champ Alabama. That win is very good in itself and they passed the eye test by hanging 49 on the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Moving on to the negatives, the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma who lost to Kansas which I would argue doesn’t add a lot of points for the Longhorns to get into the playoffs. Texas is more deserving than Bama due to the poor schedule that Bama has. Keep Texas in and let Bama out.
4. Alabama (12-1) SEC CHAMP
The Crimson Tide play the Blind Sisters of the Poor in out-of-conference play, with Middle Tennessee, Chattanooga, and South Florida winning all these games. USF was somehow a close game and they dropped the only game that they played with a real opponent. Auburn had the Crimson Tide down to one play where Millroe had to hit his receiver in the very back corner of the endzone to stay alive. The SEC championship was more of the same. This resume was apparently strong enough to get a spot in the playoff.
These are probably not the best 4 teams but the reaction from Michigan when they saw they were playing Bama the reactions was priceless. Michigan thought they were going to play FSU and hammer them into the ground. Bama has a better historical reputation than Flordia State.
Was FSU a better team than Bama? Yes, they were. But was Alabama a more profitable team than Florida State, Also yes. So the committee could have just picked 4 of the biggest brands in August not played any games and still had the same results as this past weekend. There is a reason that we play the games, so let’s have them mean something.
