They really went and did it.
In the final year of the four-team College Football Playoff, the committee suddenly decided it would change its criteria – and declare that predictions of the future determined who should be rewarded for past results.
Nobody is arguing against Michigan, Washington or Texas making the final four. The former two cases were clear-cut, and Texas had the best win of the season, on the road against fellow playoff side and SEC champions Alabama.
Watch an average 6 NFL games each week plus college football bowl games and the playoff LIVE on ESPN via Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
But it’s Alabama that’s the problem. Because the 12-1 Crimson Tide got the No.4 seed over a 13-0 Florida State team that had a fine enough resume – including a better win over common opponent LSU – but didn’t have its starting quarterback.
FSU coach Mike Norvell declared he was “disgusted and infuriated”, but the saddest comment came from injured star QB Jordan Travis, who was hurt in the Seminoles’ second-last regular season game.
“Devastated. heartbroken. In so much disbelief rn (right now), I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is much more than the quarterback,” he tweeted.
“I thought results matter. 13-0 and this roster matches up across any team in those top 4 rankings. I am so sorry. Go Noles!”
Read that again. I wish my leg broke earlier in the season. How can this snub be anything but the ultimate example of adding insult to injury?
NFL Wrap: 49ers take down Eagles | 03:08
In the end the committee determined that it needed to decide the four “best” teams, rather than the four “most deserving” – which it didn’t even do correctly.
If you were truly ranking the best teams, then we can understand putting Alabama in the top four… but you sure as hell wouldn’t have Florida State fifth above Georgia, who had won 29 straight games before their SEC championship loss to the Crimson Tide. So immediately, the idea of ‘best’ has been thrown out the window.
It is also never how the committee has ranked before. Just last year, few thought very much of third-ranked TCU, but they earned their place with a 12-1 record and rewarded the committee’s faith with an upset of 13-0 Michigan.
Or look at the numerous Ohio State teams over the past decade who’ve just missed the top four, despite dominating almost all of their schedule, because of one bad performance (Iowa in 2017, Purdue in 2018). Particularly in the latter, when unbeaten Notre Dame got in because they were unbeaten… and scored a whopping three points in their loss to Clemson.
So while nobody would argue the current version of Florida State is a better team than Alabama, or Georgia, or probably Ohio State or Oregon… that’s not the point.
The games have to matter. It has to mean something that Florida State went 13-0 not just in any conference, but the ACC – the last conference not named the SEC to provide a national champion!
One of the members of the committee, who chose to remain nameless, told ESPN of the decision to snub Florida State: “All of us had the emotional tie, like, ‘Holy s***, this is really going to suck to do this.”
Yeah, and it was stupid too. So don’t bloody do it!
Unfortunately, the reason behind it is bigger than just ‘we thought Alabama was better’. In fact, that sentence itself explains part of the reason.
The committee thought Alabama was better because, in their heads, they couldn’t accept the idea of a one-loss SEC champion missing the playoff. It’s the mighty SEC! The toughest conference in the land!
Florida State was snubbed in the College Football Playoff race for Alabama.Source: FOX SPORTS
That’s a narrative that has really existed since 2011, when the much-despised BCS system (which only picked two teams to play in the national title game) selected 11-1 Alabama as 13-0 LSU’s opponent in the finale, over 11-1 Oklahoma State and 11-1 Stanford.
Alabama had already lost to LSU, 9-6 when the teams came into the game ranked No.1 and No.2, a loss which kept Alabama out of the SEC Championship game. But they were picked to play in the national title game over an Oklahoma State side which had won its conference, including a thumping of rivals Oklahoma – but copped a double overtime loss to lowly Iowa State.
The thought then was, well, it’s more impressive to go 11-1 in the SEC than the Big 12, so we’re picking the team that didn’t even qualify for its conference championship game over the team that won theirs. While Alabama went on to win the national title game, the point was clear – one conference matters more.
This belief has only been boosted by the consolidation of the sport into two power conferences – the SEC and the Big Ten, who have hoovered up the top teams from the Big 12 (Texas, Oklahoma) and Pac-12 (USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington) in the most recent round of expansion.
The biggest names are all joining together because those conferences simply make more money; and their schools going there should only grow that pot.
But as the big two get richer, the rest of the sport gets poorer. Oregon State and Washington State, in-state rivals of their respective states’ bigger brands, have been left behind altogether and are effectively without a conference next year.
Even Florida State, a national champion just last decade and a perennial powerhouse, has been making loud noise for years about wanting to either leave the ACC or get a greater portion of the conference’s revenue. They want to try and keep up with the bigger schools, of course, but they’ve also seen their fellow top-echelon teams throwing their weight around and getting what they want – so why wouldn’t they try it too?
None of this is healthy for a national sport that is already incredibly split between the haves and have-nots. It’s already pointless for more than half of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) to dream of winning a national championship each year; Ohio State ($US251 million in revenue) and Bowling Green (US$25 million) are schools in the same state, and technically both at the top level of the sport, but cannot be compared.
49er throws punch at security, both OUT! | 01:54
And so much of the sport’s consolidation into two big leagues is driven by ESPN, who don’t just broadcast college football, but run bowl games and have a heavy influence both narratively and behind-the-scenes on the sport. The network is actually paying Texas and Oklahoma an extra fee to help cover the bill for their early exit from the Big 12 and move to the SEC (the conference which, coincidentally, ESPN recently signed a $US3 billion broadcast deal with).
They are effectively putting their finger on the scale of the sport to ensure they have a larger slice of the pie, and even smaller conferences have to go along with it – signing deals to broadcast most of their games on the ESPN streaming platform – because it’s safer to be with them than against them.
So with college football’s entire momentum heading in one direction, with the SEC, of course the committee felt Alabama was just too good to leave out, and that Florida State wasn’t impressive enough. They’re not in the SEC – how could they be?
And hey, maybe Alabama will go on and win the whole thing and talking heads will say “well, this clearly proves the committee right, they were the best team!”
But that’s not the point. Florida State had earned the right to prove the committee wrong, and will never get the chance.
Next year, the playoff expands to 12 teams. This won’t ever happen again; the dramatic decisions will be about which 2- or 3-loss team to leave out. And yes, it’s nice that more schools will have access to the part of the post-season that matters.
But the bias towards the top two conferences that created this Florida State snub will still exist. The Big Ten and SEC will provide two, three, maybe even four playoff teams most years; because of course, if you went 9-3 in one of those conferences, that must be more impressive than an 11-1 non-power conference team.
Because we say it is.
2023-12-05 06:15:14
#Playoff #rankings #Florida #State #snubbed #Alabama #semifinals #analysis #problems #SEC #bias #latest #news
Related
The College Football Playoff Committee’s decision – The story behind the snub
They really went and did it.
In the final year of the four-team College Football Playoff, the committee suddenly decided it would change its criteria – and declare that predictions of the future determined who should be rewarded for past results.
Nobody is arguing against Michigan, Washington or Texas making the final four. The former two cases were clear-cut, and Texas had the best win of the season, on the road against fellow playoff side and SEC champions Alabama.
Watch an average 6 NFL games each week plus college football bowl games and the playoff LIVE on ESPN via Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
But it’s Alabama that’s the problem. Because the 12-1 Crimson Tide got the No.4 seed over a 13-0 Florida State team that had a fine enough resume – including a better win over common opponent LSU – but didn’t have its starting quarterback.
FSU coach Mike Norvell declared he was “disgusted and infuriated”, but the saddest comment came from injured star QB Jordan Travis, who was hurt in the Seminoles’ second-last regular season game.
“Devastated. heartbroken. In so much disbelief rn (right now), I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is much more than the quarterback,” he tweeted.
“I thought results matter. 13-0 and this roster matches up across any team in those top 4 rankings. I am so sorry. Go Noles!”
Read that again. I wish my leg broke earlier in the season. How can this snub be anything but the ultimate example of adding insult to injury?
NFL Wrap: 49ers take down Eagles | 03:08
In the end the committee determined that it needed to decide the four “best” teams, rather than the four “most deserving” – which it didn’t even do correctly.
If you were truly ranking the best teams, then we can understand putting Alabama in the top four… but you sure as hell wouldn’t have Florida State fifth above Georgia, who had won 29 straight games before their SEC championship loss to the Crimson Tide. So immediately, the idea of ‘best’ has been thrown out the window.
It is also never how the committee has ranked before. Just last year, few thought very much of third-ranked TCU, but they earned their place with a 12-1 record and rewarded the committee’s faith with an upset of 13-0 Michigan.
Or look at the numerous Ohio State teams over the past decade who’ve just missed the top four, despite dominating almost all of their schedule, because of one bad performance (Iowa in 2017, Purdue in 2018). Particularly in the latter, when unbeaten Notre Dame got in because they were unbeaten… and scored a whopping three points in their loss to Clemson.
So while nobody would argue the current version of Florida State is a better team than Alabama, or Georgia, or probably Ohio State or Oregon… that’s not the point.
The games have to matter. It has to mean something that Florida State went 13-0 not just in any conference, but the ACC – the last conference not named the SEC to provide a national champion!
One of the members of the committee, who chose to remain nameless, told ESPN of the decision to snub Florida State: “All of us had the emotional tie, like, ‘Holy s***, this is really going to suck to do this.”
Yeah, and it was stupid too. So don’t bloody do it!
Unfortunately, the reason behind it is bigger than just ‘we thought Alabama was better’. In fact, that sentence itself explains part of the reason.
The committee thought Alabama was better because, in their heads, they couldn’t accept the idea of a one-loss SEC champion missing the playoff. It’s the mighty SEC! The toughest conference in the land!
Florida State was snubbed in the College Football Playoff race for Alabama.Source: FOX SPORTS
That’s a narrative that has really existed since 2011, when the much-despised BCS system (which only picked two teams to play in the national title game) selected 11-1 Alabama as 13-0 LSU’s opponent in the finale, over 11-1 Oklahoma State and 11-1 Stanford.
Alabama had already lost to LSU, 9-6 when the teams came into the game ranked No.1 and No.2, a loss which kept Alabama out of the SEC Championship game. But they were picked to play in the national title game over an Oklahoma State side which had won its conference, including a thumping of rivals Oklahoma – but copped a double overtime loss to lowly Iowa State.
The thought then was, well, it’s more impressive to go 11-1 in the SEC than the Big 12, so we’re picking the team that didn’t even qualify for its conference championship game over the team that won theirs. While Alabama went on to win the national title game, the point was clear – one conference matters more.
This belief has only been boosted by the consolidation of the sport into two power conferences – the SEC and the Big Ten, who have hoovered up the top teams from the Big 12 (Texas, Oklahoma) and Pac-12 (USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington) in the most recent round of expansion.
The biggest names are all joining together because those conferences simply make more money; and their schools going there should only grow that pot.
But as the big two get richer, the rest of the sport gets poorer. Oregon State and Washington State, in-state rivals of their respective states’ bigger brands, have been left behind altogether and are effectively without a conference next year.
Even Florida State, a national champion just last decade and a perennial powerhouse, has been making loud noise for years about wanting to either leave the ACC or get a greater portion of the conference’s revenue. They want to try and keep up with the bigger schools, of course, but they’ve also seen their fellow top-echelon teams throwing their weight around and getting what they want – so why wouldn’t they try it too?
None of this is healthy for a national sport that is already incredibly split between the haves and have-nots. It’s already pointless for more than half of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) to dream of winning a national championship each year; Ohio State ($US251 million in revenue) and Bowling Green (US$25 million) are schools in the same state, and technically both at the top level of the sport, but cannot be compared.
49er throws punch at security, both OUT! | 01:54
And so much of the sport’s consolidation into two big leagues is driven by ESPN, who don’t just broadcast college football, but run bowl games and have a heavy influence both narratively and behind-the-scenes on the sport. The network is actually paying Texas and Oklahoma an extra fee to help cover the bill for their early exit from the Big 12 and move to the SEC (the conference which, coincidentally, ESPN recently signed a $US3 billion broadcast deal with).
They are effectively putting their finger on the scale of the sport to ensure they have a larger slice of the pie, and even smaller conferences have to go along with it – signing deals to broadcast most of their games on the ESPN streaming platform – because it’s safer to be with them than against them.
So with college football’s entire momentum heading in one direction, with the SEC, of course the committee felt Alabama was just too good to leave out, and that Florida State wasn’t impressive enough. They’re not in the SEC – how could they be?
And hey, maybe Alabama will go on and win the whole thing and talking heads will say “well, this clearly proves the committee right, they were the best team!”
But that’s not the point. Florida State had earned the right to prove the committee wrong, and will never get the chance.
Next year, the playoff expands to 12 teams. This won’t ever happen again; the dramatic decisions will be about which 2- or 3-loss team to leave out. And yes, it’s nice that more schools will have access to the part of the post-season that matters.
But the bias towards the top two conferences that created this Florida State snub will still exist. The Big Ten and SEC will provide two, three, maybe even four playoff teams most years; because of course, if you went 9-3 in one of those conferences, that must be more impressive than an 11-1 non-power conference team.
Because we say it is.
2023-12-05 06:15:14
#Playoff #rankings #Florida #State #snubbed #Alabama #semifinals #analysis #problems #SEC #bias #latest #news
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