It was Sunday, Dec. 3rd that one of the most controversial decisions in College football history was made by the CFP (College Football Playoff) committee on who could play for the National Championship. Michigan, Washington, and Texas were locks to make it, all were undefeated in their season and in their conference. The other undefeated team, Florida State had to beat Louisville, then ranked No. 13 in the country, to stay undefeated. The 1-loss team of Alabama had to beat No. 1 Georgia to win their conference. Both Florida State and Alabama both beat who they had to beat to be considered. The problem, as the CFP committee saw it was who do we take? Both teams won their conferences. Both could be considered worthy, but which one?
The selection they came up with was Alabama, a 1-loss team over an undefeated Florida State. This was unprecedented, and to many this was SEC favoritism over the ACC. Was that true? It sure looked like it, and there are arguments to be made for both. I decided to look up some stats from the season, present them here and then after looking them over, let you all decide, so here goes.
In inter-conference play this year, The ACC was 6-4 against the SEC. So much for the SEC being the best conference in college football! Florida State’s top wins were against No. 16 LSU (a big bad SEC team!) and conference rival No. 13 Louisville. Florida State had to come from behind to beat arch rival Florida, 24-16. The key in that game was they lost starting quarterback, Jordan Travis, but still won. They also lost back-up quarterback Tate Rodemaker. Against Louisville, freshman Brock Glenn stepped in for the 24-16 win.
Alabama finished 12-1, their lone loss coming at the hands of Texas, 34-24. They had several bad showings, one against the University of South Florida (6-6 overall) who they beat 17-3, and a miracle win against arch rival Auburn, on a last second “Hail Mary” pass, 27-24. However, after the Texas loss, they did win 10 straight, beating four teams in the top 20, and No. 1 Georgia.
So, we have undefeated Florida State vs. 1-loss Alabama. For the first time, the committee picked a one loss team over the undefeated conference champion. Why? The reason given was since Florida State had lost its top two quarterbacks, they could not give their best effort, or something like that. Was this nothing more than SEC bias, or a legitimate reason? The “SEC IS A BETTER CONFERENCE” argument doesn’t work because the ACC beat them head to head this year. Does the loss of its top two quarterbacks have merit? In my opinion no because Ohio State won the National Championship in 2015 with their 3rd string quarterback, Cardale Jones, so what’s the reason?
I do not know the real reason, but I suspect it was money. I think the committee was sure that Alabama/Michigan would bring in more revenue. Pure and simple it came to money…..but who really knows? I’ll let you decide. That’s the way I see it, from the Sidelines!
