Needless to say, the College Football Playoff committee really ruffled some feathers with their selections for the country’s top four teams.
After the secretive and willy-nilly committee (thank you very much) took time to digest all of the results from conference championship weekend, they woke up this morning and decided that their main objective was to anger as many fanbases as possible. They slotted Michigan (13-0) in at the one seed and another undefeated team in Washington (13-0) at the two seed, and that was fine and dandy with everyone.
Then they must have said “let’s shake things up,” because they put in the Texas Longhorns (12-1) at the three seed and the Alabama Crimson (Roll) Tide (12-1) as the final team in the four-team playoff. Thus, an undefeated, ACC champion Florida State (13-0) and a Georgia team whose only loss was to Alabama in the SEC championship by three points were left out of the CFP.
There are a lot of fanbases that feel snubbed by the committee’s controversial decisions, which seemingly revolved around making sure Nick Saban’s Alabama team got in no matter what. However, no team has more of an argument to be upset and feel cheated than an undefeated Florida State Seminoles team.
Many have cited a rule (made up by the very committee that selects the teams) that gives the College Football Playoff committee the power to leave teams out if they are missing a valuable player or coach that would lessen their competitiveness. FSU’s quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury, missing the final two games of the season, which Florida State won both of.
FSU’s Head Coach Mike Norvell “went off” when he found out that his undefeated team had missed out on a chance to play for a national championship:
What he said (and I’m not even a Florida State fan).
While everyone has been upset about the committee today, there was one man that was way ahead of his time that was ripping the College Football Playoff committee way before everyone else. Legendary college football coach Mike Leach (RIP) once eviscerated the “playoff” and the group of people that decide who gets to play for a national championship, saying:
“(There’s) a mind numbingly short-sided notion that four teams for a playoff somehow establishes something and that that’s a very clever approach. That’s such a brilliant approach, that’s why everyone does it that way. Nobody does it that way.
If we were so smart, wouldn’t all the other sports say ‘I know, let’s have a committee. Cause why not? Cause we’re American, we love committees. Let’s get us a committee. Well who should be on the committee? Well, I don’t know, this guy’s a good guy, let’s have him on the committee.'”
After bumbling through the hilarious hypothetical of how the committee is formed, Mike Leach got back on track and really stuck the landing with his final thoughts about it:
“If we’re going to do it that way, we should just ask them at the beginning of the season. You guys go ahead and vote on it and figure out 1, 2, 3, and 4, and why even have the games? To me, that’s not a playoff, there’s nothing playoff about it…
How can you call it a playoff when there’s four teams (and) conference champions don’t even necessarily make the playoff? Cause you know why? Because the committee knew better.”
What he said…
