College football almost navigated the tightest of paths in the way it selects playoff teams without major controversy.
Sure, there have been a few times since the playoff field was set at four in 2014 that teams cackled here and there about seeding, or about being left out altogether.
It was a miracle, when you think about it. College football “had” five power conferences (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12) and four playoff slots. A nuclear dispute seemed inevitable.
Most years, however, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee got together and picked four teams with just the normal grumbling one would expect.
The playoff field expands to 12 next year and college football A-L-M-O-S-T escaped the four-team era without the Big One.
Almost. Texas won the Big 12 this season with 12 wins, a loss to Oklahoma and a win at Alabama. Washington won the Pac 12 with 13 wins. Michigan won the Big Ten with 13 wins and a sign stealing scandal. Alabama won the SEC with 12 wins, including a win over Number One but a loss at home against Texas.
And Florida State. FSU opened the season with a three-touchdown win on a neutral site against LSU and just kept winning — 13-0 and an ACC Championship. However, the team lost starting QB Jordan Travis near the end of the season.
Five teams. Six if you count one-loss Georgia, a two-time defending natioal champion. Seven if you count Ohio State, one loss to Number Two Michigan on the road in a close one.
And four spots.
I’ve wondered aloud since the beginning of the four-team playoff if the committee was supposed to pick the teams who were the best throughout the season, or right now?
And this is where the committee creates its own problem. In some years it appears the committee picked the four best throughout the season. In others, it picked the four best right now.
It picked the four best right now this season and that made Florida State an unfortunate odd team out.
The Florida State of September 23rd would have probably been a 3- to 4-point favorite over the Alabama of September 23rd on a neutral field. The Florida State of December 3rd would have been a 13-point underdog to the Alabama of December 3rd.
Add to that the unlucky turn of one-loss Texas owning a road win over Alabama. If Alabama was getting in, Texas wouldn’t be left out. It’s amazing this set of circumstances hadn’t happened sooner.
The committee most likely gathered together to watch the SEC Championship Game and saw two very good teams play a close game at a high level. Maybe they grabbed a bite and then watched the ACC Championship Game. Unfortunately FSU was down to a third-string QB and a running back in the Wildcat. It mustered a 16-6 win to its credit, but there was a distinct difference in the level of football played in those two games.
It is through no fault of FSU that the committee most likely determined at that point it could not justify FSU as one of the four best currently.
This is the simplest, most reasonable explanation for how we got the Playoff Four.
But this isn’t how we determine things in society anymore, at all. There has to be a Boogeyman, or a dozen.
Can you think of a substantive issue in America right now where the prevailing argument on one or both sides is not conspiratorial?
So the theories began to ooze:
ESPN dictated the field. Eyeballs mean revenue and the suits at Disney raided the committee meeting to set the field themselves. ESPN is part owner of the SEC Network (and the ACC Network, but work with me) and it needed to muscle in the SEC for the biggest money grab.
The ACC-connected committee members took revenge on FSU for public comments about a desire to leave the conference. Keeping FSU out of the playoff this year will only accelerate the demise of the ACC so this doesnt seem to hold water. Playoff Committee Chairman Boo Corrigan is the AD at North Carolina State. Do you believe North Carolina State would get an invitation from a major conference if the ACC imploded? Would Boo Corrigan hasten the demise of his own athletic department and endanger his own future as an ACC AD because public comments about FSU’s unhappiness in the ACC bent his screwdriver?
Bama bias. The Godfather speaks and greases Alabama’s path. Sure, Bama gets breaks occasionally. It’s made the playoffs before without winning its own division. But Bama did beat then-No. 1 on a neutral field and also beat 11, 13 and 21 by two scores. We can have a legitimate resume´debate but it’s not as if Bama doesn’t have bona fides.
Desantis to blame. Just sayin …
I get it. Sometimes grim-faced men in suits make decisions behind closed doors and the little guy gets the shaft. But this seems to be where we want to set up residence. It’s the answer to everything.
But when there is a simple, legitimate, logical, common-sense explanation staring right at us, can’t we just start there?
Is it reasonable to surmise that a group of 13 people got together after all the football was played this season and determined that FSU without its quarterback is not one of the four best college football teams today?
Yes. Keep in mind the committee could be flat wrong. Everyone thought Ohio State did not deserve to be in the 2014 playoffs when it lost its top two quarterbacks and it won the National Championship going away. Humans are flawed. Sometimes our judgment is OK. Sometimes, not so much. If I had Garnet and Gold coursing through my veins, I would passionately argue that Florida State deserved to have a chance to prove the naysayers wrong.
But let’s just jump straight into Conspiracyville instead. It’s the American way.
I just don’t believe anyone can say that Georgia is not one of the best 4 teams in the country. And I am not a GA fan! The claim is to have the 4 Best teams play each other. It’s just impossible to remove politics unfortunately.