The sport’s identity crisis has existed since the inception of the College Football Playoff a decade ago, but never before have we had to deal with it like we did Sunday.
That identity crisis? Whether teams playing for the national championship should be the best or most deserving. In the nine years preceding this season, the best and most deserving became so seamlessly, determining precise decisions on which teams would take the field.
In the final season of the four-team era – before it expands to 12 in 2024 – the CFP committee was tasked with a very difficult decision that would surely lead to a notable team feeling cheated. The committee, for the first time, should have chosen what it values more: the teams that have earned it or those that appear best on TV.
Florida State, the most deserving, became the first undefeated Power 5 Conference champion left off the field. The Seminoles were the ones who felt betrayed.
And with that decision, the committee didn’t just pick teams in any given year. He revealed to the world the ugly truth about college football: The sport is a beauty pageant in which decisions about which teams can win the national title are sometimes made as much in the cozy conference room of a hotel in Grapevine, Texas, as on the actual field. .
The playoff field is as follows: 1. Michigan, 2. Washington, 3. Texas, 4. Alabama.
Michigan and Washington made it through the season unscathed. Texas lost a blowout in its rivalry game to Oklahoma, and the Longhorns, wait for it, beat Alabama.
We wouldn’t be having this discussion if Florida State star quarterback Jordan Travis hadn’t broken his leg two weeks ago. But the Seminoles team that had just beaten Louisville 16-6 in the ACC Championship Game was relying on a third-string quarterback. The victory was far from impressive.
devastated. heartbroken. With so much disbelief, I wish I would break my leg early in the season so you can see that this team is more than just a quarterback. I thought results matter. 13-0 and this roster matches any team in the top 4 rankings. I am very sorry. Go Noles!
— Jordan Travis (@jordantrav13) December 3, 2023
The committee, knowing it would unfairly break someone’s heart, decided to break the State of Florida’s. On Saturday night, in that room, the committee members decided that the Seminoles weren’t good enough for us.
This is not the purpose of sport. And with the four-team CFP era coming to an end after this season, fans will see it as a broken system that needed to be changed rather than the first frontier of the sport’s modernization.
It’s very easy to understand why the committee couldn’t choose between Alabama and Texas. Alabama is an SEC champion with a loss to Georgia on Saturday, ending the Bulldogs’ 29-game winning streak. Texas, the one-loss Big 12 champion, beat Alabama by 10 points in Tuscaloosa in September.
Many fans hoped that the SEC would be completely shut out for the first time, but the committee, tasked with choosing the “best teams,” couldn’t ignore what the talented Crimson Tide had accomplished. But if Alabama leaves, how could the committee exclude the team that beat them?
Could not.
This is probably the path of least resistance. Outside of Florida State fans, the general population will move forward believing that the playoff semifinals will be more fun with higher-level teams. The best teams, as they say, won.
The problem with choosing the best is that it is entirely subjective and ultimately misleading given that it is a sport that routinely features unpredictable results and racing. The last time a team relied on a third-string quarterback headed to the College Football Playoff – Ohio State in the inaugural season of the four-team field – it won the national title.
The difference between those Buckeyes and this Florida State team was that Ohio State won the Big Ten title game that year 59-0. Florida State was in a close game with Louisville which, frankly, was not a fun watch for people who like the excitement of big-time offense. Perception, mistakenly, became reality.
“Florida State is a different team,” CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan said after the field was revealed. “You look at who they are as a team without Jordan Travis: They are a different team.”
This is a well-informed opinion that is probably true. However, this is not a fact. You could argue that Florida State is so good that they won a Power 5 conference championship game with a true freshman quarterback. In the CFP, Florida State would get second-string quarterback Tate Rodemaker with a month to prepare for a semifinal.
The state of Florida was robbed.
And his coach did not hide his disappointment.
“I am disgusted and enraged by the decision made today by the committee to take away what was earned on the field because a small group of people decided to know more than the results of the games,” Mike Norvell said in a statement. “What’s the point of playing?”
As difficult as it would have been, the right thing for the committee to do would have been to leave Alabama out. Most of us know deep down that the Crimson Tide… the most talented team, on paper, in the sport – they are one of the four best teams. Alabama is certainly equipped to win the whole thing.
But Alabama – like fellow Georgia and Ohio State, teams with a wealth of raw talent on their rosters – lost one (home) game. Better teams than this Alabama team have been shut out in the past because losses had consequences.
Alabama’s loss to Texas was of no consequence because we are in love with the SEC and what it means to beat Georgia. It didn’t matter that Alabama, though perceived as a completely different team in September, lost to the Longhorns. That game could have been a playoff game in September. Turns out it was an exhibit.
There are many people who are against expanding the field to 12 because of the sanctity of the regular season. But if regular season games don’t matter when it comes to choosing the final four, then there are no consequences for expanding to 12.
The regular season didn’t decide who made it this year. Thirteen people did it.
Games matter. The results are not.
(Photo by Mike Norvell: Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)