The College Football Playoff is around the corner and boy have we had some controversy the last week or so. As everyone that follows NCAA Football knows, the top 4 teams in the nation make the College Football Playoff. The Alabama Crimson Tide were one of the four teams selected to make the Playoff. Alabama has been a powerhouse for the past 15 years ever since Nick Saban took over has head coach in 2008. The top 4 teams are Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama. Michigan will be playing Alabama in the Rose Bowl and Texas will be playing Washington in the Sugar Bowl.
If you haven’t noticed there is one team missing from this and that is the Florida State Seminoles. The Seminoles finished the season 13-0 and almost were a shoe in for the CFP. But, the committee had other plans and stuck them at the #5 spot right behind Alabama which caused them to miss the CFP and they will now be playing Georgia in the Orange Bowl. I want to say at least 60% of the college football landscape were livid with this decision and you could definitely make a case for why FSU should’ve been in the playoff consideration. But, there are plenty of reasons why they also should not have been selected and I am going to tell you why the CFP committee made the correct decision.
Alabama beat the #1 team in the country
Alabama had to play the #1 team in the country, the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship last Saturday. There were a ton of scenarios for the Tide to make the playoff, but the 1 thing they needed to do was win the game against Georgia first. They defeated Georgia 27-24 in an incredible game. This win catapulted the Tide up to the #4 spot and dropped Georgia all the way to #6 leaving them out of the playoff after back-to-back national championships.
Weak Strength of Schedule
When you look at a team for CFP consideration, you must take into account their strength of schedule. Caliber of opponent will say a lot about how your team performs against superior and inferior opponents. Florida State had the 55th hardest schedule in FBS this season, with their biggest wins coming against LSU, Duke and most recently Louisville in the ACC Championship. Other than that, if you look at who they have played it is nothing more than a very weak ACC schedule that doesn’t give the committee anything to go off of. Alabama had the 5th hardest schedule in FBS with their big wins coming against LSU, Ole Miss and now the former #1 team in the nation Georgia Bulldogs. That alone should tell you a lot. Even with the 1 loss in Week 1 to Texas, they rattled off 12 straight and won the SEC.
Better team over most deserving team
I have heard plenty of people say “well FSU deserved it”. I don’t remember the CFP ever being about who “deserved” it more. It was about the 4 best teams in college football playing for a national championship. There is no possible way that you can say that even if FSU had Jordan Travis that they are a better team than Alabama. It’s not about principle when it comes to something like this, you need to have your 4 best playoff ready teams in no matter what.
Jordan Travis injury
This is probably the most brought up argument across college football. The committee when making their selections has to take into account key players being out and how that would effect that team in future games. Obviously, losing a player like Jordan Travis was a huge dagger to the FSU team and they had to play their last 3 games without him including the ACC Championship. This injury definitely would have effected them if they would have made the CFP. They would be playing either Michigan or Washington and to be frank, they would have gotten destroyed. Of course that’s just speculation, but I don’t see a world where Tate Rodemaker would have beaten either team. The offense barely put up points against Louisville. Yes, Louisville was #16 but let’s be honest, they were most definitely way worse than 16th in the nation.
With all of these reasons I believe the committee made the exact right decision putting Alabama in the CFP. They were the clear better team and they had the better resume of wins and the tougher strength of schedule. Do I believe that they could win the national championship? Before the Georgia game, not really. But, after seeing how they played against the best team in the nation, I think Alabama has the best chance to win with Texas being right behind them.
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