Alabama has reached the College Football Playoffs again. sigh.
You can consider me one of those sports fans who love the underdog, after all, I’ve been a Cleveland Browns fan my entire 21 years on earth. You could even call me someone who simply doesn’t want to see the same team at the top every year.
You can then understand why I hate reporting that the Crimson Tide has another shot at winning the National Championship. But the big question remains: Does Alabama deserve to be there?
According to the College Football Playoff Committee, its job is to select the four best teams, not the most deserving. The most common dilemma of Alabama reaching the playoffs comes at the expense of Florida State.
The Seminoles were a perfect 13-0 in the regular season, capped by a 16-6 win over No. 14 Louisville in the ACC Tournament. Ranked as the No. 4 seed going into the matchup versus the Cardinals, it seemed easy to leave the Seminoles as the last team to make the playoffs after their last win.
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Here’s the curveball – Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis, who is being talked about winning the Heisman Trophy this year, was injured during a game against North Alabama on Nov. 18. And although Florida State won two games after his season-ending injury, they are not good enough to make the playoffs.
Remember, the committee’s job is to select the four best teams. I’ll give Alabama credit for defeating the former No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game. But does this win alone solidify them as a better unit than Florida State?
I say no. The reason Florida State was eliminated from the playoffs was solely due to injury. However, you can’t assume that they are now worse than Alabama because they lost their starting position, and punishing them for a mistake they didn’t make is bizarre and frankly unacceptable. Who’s to say Alabama’s quarterback won’t get injured during the first play of the semifinal game against Michigan — will that make the committee regret putting Alabama ahead?
Ask Nick Foles and the rest of the 2017-18 Eagles if they were a worse team than any other team that made the playoffs that year because Carson Wentz was injured during the regular season. Spoiler alert: The Eagles won the Super Bowl that year.
Florida State is now the first team since the College Football Playoff era to be undefeated champions in a Power Five conference and not reach the final four. The committee decided that since Florida State did not have a star quarterback, they could not win games.
Regardless of the style points at the quarterback position, or whether a team wins games with its offense or defense, the best teams show that no matter who is there, they find ways to win.
The Seminoles did everything they were asked to do in order to put themselves in a position to succeed, and instead of being rewarded, they were shut out of a playoff spot.
Whether the Seminoles beat No. 1 Michigan in the semifinals or not, they’ve earned the right to be there. Maybe that could fall into the more deserving category, but the two are somewhat intertwined. At some point, you have to say you are the most deserving because you are the best, and Alabama’s qualifications are not up to Florida’s qualifications.
Someone might say, “The competition offered by the ACC is not as good as the SEC.” While this is often a fair statement, I encourage anyone who makes this claim to look at Alabama’s performance since the beginning of October.
They barely beat Texas A&M with a 26-20 win, nearly gave up a 21-6 lead versus Arkansas, and most recently got a gift-wrapped win for Auburn during the Iron Bowl. All of the aforementioned opponents dropped by the “top four team in the country” are unseeded. This does not represent the situation that Alabama currently has.
What this really comes down to is ratings and money. The NCAA knows the SEC is the butter for its bread. This was the first time since the playoff era that an SEC team was not placed in the top four, and that could have led to lower viewership and less yeast in the dough to keep it from rising any higher.
Selection committee chairman Beau Corrigan said in an interview that Liberty deserved to make a New Year’s Six tournament bid over Southern Methodist University because they “kept winning.” That’s exactly what the FFA did, so why didn’t they join?
It would be an absolute pleasure to see Alabama beat the Wolverines on January 1st. Do I think the Crimson Tide is a good football team? Yes. Do they deserve to be in the playoffs over Florida State? of course not. The committee made a huge mistake with this decision, and all I can finish is thank God there is a 12-team bracket next year.
In recent years, the Florida State football team has been a dominant force in college football, consistently vying for the top spot in the rankings. With a storied history and a passionate fan base, the Seminoles have proven themselves as a formidable contender for the College Football Playoffs. However, despite their consistent success, Florida State has not always received the recognition it deserves from the playoff selection committee. In this essay, we will examine the reasons why Florida State should be included in the College Football Playoffs, and how their presence would not only benefit the team and its fans, but also the overall excitement and competitiveness of the playoffs.