The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Four

On the fourth day of Gheorghemas, big Gheorghe gave to me:

Four Teams for Bitching

Three Tiny Scrappers
Two books for your Gheorghemas wish list
And a doofus to lead this country

And here you thought it was fair, or at least an attempt at fair. Or maybe that merit counted for something. College football again demonstrated that it is and it does, provided you reside in the right neighborhood and pass the eyeball test. 

The College Football Playoff announced its four-team field, and the outrage was equal parts predictable and naïve. We get Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama – all heavy hitters, all deserving of spots, all appointment watching, the latter quality carrying extra weight in an endeavor partnered with TV and its wheelbarrows of cash. But it's an affront to the game, a traveshamockery! To which we say, Settle down, Beavis. 

The CFP is a football tournament that doubles as a TV show. Or vice versa. Florida State has a legitimate beef after being snubbed. The Seminoles are the first unbeaten team from a Power Five conference to be left out in the 10-year history of the current format. The ACC champs will watch from distance as one-loss Texas and one-loss Alabama compete in semifinals. 

The ‘Noles are victims because of two things out of their control: their league; and injury/injuries to their quarterback(s). To the first point: Florida State was fourth in the penultimate CFP rankings heading into conference championship weekend. The Seminoles beat Louisville in the ACC title game to finish 13-0. Elsewhere, Michigan (No. 2) and Washington (No. 3) had already clinched two spots in the field with wins. 

Texas (No. 7) dump trucked Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship game. Then, Alabama (No. 8) upset top-ranked Georgia in the SEC title game, creating what many believed would be chaos for the selection committee. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 won their games, while No. 1 lost. How would the committee separate Georgia, which lost to ‘Bama, which lost to Texas? 

But SEC commish Greg Sankey reminded everyone, inadvertently or not, of who’s who and what’s what. Asked prior to last Saturday’s games about the possibility of the SEC getting left out of the playoff field should ‘Bama beat Georgia, he responded, “That’s not the real world of college football. Let’s go back to Sesame Street to make it real basic, because one of these things is not like the other, and that is the Southeastern Conference. We have five of the top 15 teams.” Sankey continued: “… the reality is that no one has experienced the success that we have in the playoff. So when you actually put us against the teams rather than in committee rooms, we stand alone.” 

In other words, the SEC was going to have a seat at the table, regardless. As would the Big Ten. Bonus points if you realized that all four semifinalists are current or future members of the SEC and Big Ten. 

Which brings us to the second point: Florida State was without starting quarterback and offensive rainmaker Jordan Travis. Its backup QB missed the ACC championship game in concussion protocol, forcing the Seminoles to use their third-string quarterback, a true freshman who looked the part. The ‘Noles’ top-shelf defense smothered Louisville, but their offense toggled between meh and unwatchable for 3½ hours in a 16-6 slog. 

After Florida State was left out, several committee members remarked that the Seminoles were a different team without Travis, a fairly thin justification. Now, choosing the playoff field based on which teams look best or are playing best at the end of the season or on championship weekend isn’t an unreasonable gauge. The problem is that there’s no hard and fast selection criteria. Sometimes it’s season-long accomplishment, other times it’s how a team appears when everyone’s watching. It can be tailored to desired outcomes or whenever the check clears. Were Travis healthy and had the Seminoles bounced Louisville 30-6, the committee likely would have had to do some hair-splitting. As it was, members didn’t have to separate Alabama and Texas; they defaulted by separating Florida State altogether. 

All of this year’s outrage will be moot a year from now when the 12-team field begins. Florida State would get in, as would Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon and several others. It would be a helluva tournament. That’s little consolation right now. 

Truth is, there are going to be gripes no matter the size of a playoff field. The No. 5 team gripes when there’s a four-team field. The 69th team gripes when it’s left out of the 68-team NCAA basketball tournament field – or to be more accurate, the 37th-rated at-large team. Next year, the 13th team will wail at being omitted from the football playoff. The difference is that the smaller the field, generally the more legit the complaint. 

Remember, too, that college football's postseason, if not the entire sport, has always been about money. Historically, the bowl system and its civic graft controlled postseason. If the No. 1 team's conference was tied to the Rose Bowl and No. 2's to the Orange Bowl, well, that's the way it was. A playoff would supposedly devalue the regular season, and split national champions were simply part of the "charm" of major college football. Never mind that basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, heck, even lower level college football, staged tournaments to decide national champions. 

When TV money surpassed bowl money, with a side of public demand, suddenly championship matchups were more palatable. We had 1 vs. 2, then the four-team field and now a dozen teams playing for a title, with mega football conferences led by the Big Ten and SEC here and in the near future. College football is an attractive, lucrative pastime. On its way to the next phase of world domination, it couldn’t resist reminding everyone who and what call the shots.