Despite Hoosier, Mustang losses and Sun Devil and Bronco byes, the system holds
It’s not about the best 12 teams.
Or, if it is, it’s the wrong system and who wants that?
Undoubtedly, Indiana did this column few favors Friday night and Kevin Jennings, SMU quarterback, in the game I woke up to Saturday, did less.
What they didn’t do, however, was make me wrong because, again, it isn’t and shouldn’t be about identifying the “best” 12 teams.
No, it’s a give and take between the best 12, the most deserving 12 and, perhaps, a slight attempt to make the bracket interesting.
Certainly, the parameters the College Football Playoff claims to be working within do not reflect the previous paragraph, but that’s because it’s a very difficult point to make, because while “best” and “most deserving” each sound like terrific arbiters of who belongs in the bracket, they are not the same thing and capable of canceling the other out.
Like, say, in the case of Alabama on the one hand and SMU on the other, each a flashpoint as the Mustang’s non-conference-title candidacy literally canceled the Crimson Tide’s non-conference-title candidacy.
Is the Tide SMU’s superior?
Probably, though I’d really like to see that game played on the Mustangs’ home field where Jennings is less likely to lose his mind and turn into Michael Hawkins against South Carolina; or at Jerry’s World where the whole Metroplex might adopt SMU for a game, making it awfully hard for Jalen Milroe to hear himself think just as it was so hard for Jennings in State College.
But sure, Alabama’s better.
Also, had the Tide not lost not only to Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, but to Georgia, too, by the same 34-33 count it trailed the Bulldogs with 2:31 remaining, guess what?
It’s still a better team than SMU, only nobody’d be making ’Bama’s case because nobody would have a problem with the 11-2 Mustangs getting the nod over the 8-4 Tide.
But if they’re still better …
See?
The “best 12” arguers are kind of lying in the first place.
Then there’s the whole question of whether or not a conference title game loss should knock somebody out of the playoff.
If it utterly exposes somebody, why not, but that’s not what happened to SMU, which came back to tie Clemson 31-31 in the ACC title game with 16 seconds remaining.
You may recall, everybody said Georgia’s place in the playoff was secure prior to its SEC title game tussle with Texas, even though a Longhorn victory would have been the Bulldogs’ third loss, which might have been a dicey thing given Georgia and Alabama would have then been tied in the loss column with the Tide holding a head-to-head win.
But no, before they played, everybody agreed a title game win can help but a title game loss shouldn’t hurt.
Well, hello, would anybody have taken 9-3 Alabama over a 12-1 SMU team that wound up beating Clemson for the ACC crown. Yes, I know, they couldn’t, but would they?
No, they wouldn’t.
But the “best 12” folks are happy to have it both ways because they want to see Alabama in the playoff because they’ll always believe the SEC deserves another entrant.
Tangentially, those same folks can’t wait to reseed the teams either, taking away Boise State’s No. 3-seed for winning the Mountain West and handing it to Texas, or Arizona State’s No. 4-seed for winning the Big 12 and handing it to Penn State, Notre Dame or even Ohio State, who most would agree to be better than Penn State, only the Buckeyes went splat against Michigan for no good reason.
But if they’re still better …
See?
The whole “best” thing will never hold water because there will always be three- and four-loss teams capable of being favored over one- and two-loss teams the CFP committee would not and should not take over those one- and two-loss teams.
So why not applaud conference championships meaning something, nor should we ignore losses like Alabama’s to Vandy and OU even though we might still think, sure, ’Bama’s one of the best 12.
We should love it, too, that huge regular seasons like Indiana’s and SMU’s are rewarded because it makes the bracket so much more fun because what’s a bracket without a Cinderella or two?
There’s also this.
If the SEC and Big Ten can’t take it and want to depart the rest of the sport, let them. But if they need the credibility of a division with 134 teams rather 34, they can certainly live with Alabama on the outside looking in and Boise State and Arizona State, not Texas, receiving first-round byes.
Indiana and SMU happened to let us down.
The system, though, holds.
The SMU QB was about as close to sheer magic as one gets while he steered his team from behind late in the Clemson game. Then, he looked like a mediocre high school kid against P-State. Either the talent level was wildly different—it was—or the stage just got too big for him. He was as terrible as arnold while throwing the three interceptions in the first quarter. Whatever the reasons, the three games Saturday were abysmal TV. Here's hoping that the remaining games attain a modicum of competition. Now, where are all those quality WRs OU expected after signing Mateer?
John’s right, all three games were lousy TV. I thought surely Heupel and his TN team would be a match for OSU but it was not to be. Here’s hoping the other playoff games are much more interesting.