Agree with that if someone wants to argue seeding sure have at it although I’m pretty sure Michigan is the only one with a legit argument there
Honestly I’m just excited to watch a good game in Michigan-Bama instead of trying to see if FSU can get to double digits on New Year’s Day
I’m not arguing Alabama isn’t any good. They’re really good. I’m referring to them being #8 in the playoff ranking one week (Texas #7) and FSU already in the top 4, and then both jumping 4 spots to be ahead of FSU. FSU did everything asked of them, including beating two $EC schools away from Tallahassee. They beat LSU by 3 TD’s on a neutral field that Bama beat by only 2 TD’s in Tuscaloosa.
I was prepared to enjoy all the arguments of head to head games and who among the 1-loss teams should advance to the CFP. It never occurred to me they would orchestrate to screw an undefeated team. And as for FSU’s weak offensive performance, they’d have their 2nd QB back for the CFP after the dirty hit from $EC’s Florida. That QB had the SEC beat when he was on the field.
I’m also not arguing Washington shouldn’t be in, it just seems they are avoiding the same type of scrutiny that FSU is getting. Frankly, I would have gone with Michigan, Washington, FSU, and Alabama and say sorry to Texas. But if Texas were to get in instead, so be it. To leave out a P5 team on a 19-game win streak that played perhaps the most ambitious OOC schedule of anyone, is BS.
Maybe FSU should have looked better when they lost Travis. If they hang 49 on Florida or Louisville they’re probably in. But instead they looked like a team that sits in the 10-20 range and now they’re not in the CFP. There’s a reason they’re double digit underdogs
lol so naive. The committee would’ve found another reason to keep them out. Only real defense is ‘it’s not a real way to crown a champion anyway so they can do whatever they want’
FSU’s two games without him were each larger margins of victory than Alabama had in their last two games.
Bama’s games were tougher but Louisville was #14 so not like the committee thinks they suck.
If FSU beats Louisville 49-39 do you think they get in? Same margin of victory. I think the narrative would be a lot different which is pretty funny.
@norfolk_hoo is absolutely right. If FSU doesn’t look like Iowa in the ACC championship game they likely squeak into the CFP.
For me the problem with that logic from the committee is, the FSU team that would walk into a game on 1/3 or whatever will look very different than the one we saw on Saturday night. Rodemaker had a concussion (which he played through against UF.. don’t get me started) that forced him to sit. It’s safe to assume he would be good to go for the CFP. Is he Jordan Travis? No but he’s a big step up from an 18 kid getting his first run.
The bottom line is the system is flawed as it stood with a 4 team playoff and no matter how you sliced it you were going to have a deserving team left at home which is BS. I can’t think of another sport where the league actively works to keep contenders from contending. It’s the equivalent of the NCAA tourney committee looking at a potential 1 or 2 seed and saying nah not this year.
Bottom line is that the only justification is money and a bias toward the SEC and B1G. Bubba should have resigned as committee head on Sunday morning before the announcement, but I’m guessing he enjoyed screwing FSU. They should have just taken Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio State. That is the future of college football anyway. Let’s just go ahead and pull the bandaid off.
I feel like we’re heading into the Final Four weekend, after Florida Atlantic has already won their way into the final weekend, and the NCAAT says, “Sorry, FAU, we all know you’re not one of the four best teams, so Alabama is taking your spot.”
Same Louisville team that had to have every call go its way in the 4th quarter to beat 3-9 Virginia at home?
They limped down the stretch, Virginia game, losing to a mediocre Kentucky team, and scoring just six points vs. FSU (when FSU’s offense couldn’t stay on the field because of its anemic QB play).
There’s no conspiracy theory here.
If Clemson were good this year and if Miami didn’t fold like a cheap suit in every close game (but ours), they’d be in.
The ACC was awful, and they got penalized for it.
Then why was FSU ranked above Georgia and OSU in the final rankings? What is the logic for them being #5 if what the committee were doing was identifying the “best right now” teams or accounting for dramatic differences in strength of schedule? Both those teams would be dramatically favored against FSU right now too.
The Committee wanted to include the SEC and made it work by inconsistently applying the range of criteria they’ve said they can take into account. Alabama literally already played and lost to one of the other teams in the field (at home!) and there was an undefeated P5 champ available for inclusion. I think it was clearly the wrong call.
For those of us that like sports, yes. Try explaining FBS football to a European. You’ll invariably get some sort of ‘and that sport is popular??’ response. But for ESPN, the SEC commissioner, and the B1G commissioner the system does exactly what it’s designed to do: make more money
How did Bama look with 15 seconds to go vs middling Auburn? They got lucky. FSU at least beat middling Florida by 9 in Gainesville.
And then Bama beat number one Georgia. Which is better than anything FSU did this season.
I would love for someone to string together a coherent argument about how FSU is one of the four best teams in the country right now and how they could win a national title if they were let in. But everyone knows they can’t because they’re simply not as good as any of the other teams in the playoff
This is exactly right. If Georgia beats Bama, FSU is in and Texas is out. But, in order to include an SEC team - Bama - they had to include Texas. The whole sport of college football is run by the SEC and ESPN. We better get used to being screwed or we better move to the league that runs the sport.
Trust me I’ve spent a ton of time in the UK and have gotten those looks multiple times. Was recently trying to explain to my therapist who is Welsh how it all works after he went down the rabbit hole watching Next Chance U on Netflix. It was humorous to say the least.
The crazy part is the system is gonna print cash no matter how they cut it. It could also easily be argued that by expanding it and bringing in more games there’s going to be more revenue not less.
First issue with Europeans before trying to explain the BCS is trying to convince them that Americans care about University sports teams and it is a multi-billion dollar industry… that is more unbelievable to them than how the CFP works. ![]()
No one is going to explain it because that hasn’t been the criteria until ESPN needed it to become the criteria this year. There wasn’t a clear ‘best 4 not 4 most deserving’ until the last month when they saw this scenario potentially coming and put out the marching orders. I’ll try to find the link but there was even an article from the athletic (or someone) talking about this yesterday. They decided the SEC couldn’t be left out and worked backward. The criteria is deliberately ambiguous so they can change the emphasis as needed year to year
You are asking for an argument nobody is trying to make and you know this. People are arguing that FSU earned the right to be there, not that they are one of the best four teams in the country at this moment in time. You clearly would prefer that selection be made based on who is best right now, which is a fair opinion. But it’s weird to keep asking people to argue something that nobody is trying to argue.