Are we done yet? Has the stand-up comic show ended on Twitter? Are we still doing the "here's what the committee should have done?" Or maybe this one: "How can you possibly not consider (fill in the blank) for the playoff?" And let's not forget this favorite: "This is what college football needs to do..."
And so it goes again and again and again when a college football season ends the College Football Playoff committee picks four team to play in the made-for-tv invitational.
Can anyone truly find four teams the committee could've chosen that would have no one complaining after the selections?
You really think everyone would nod their head in agreement if Texas A&M got in instead of Notre Dame?
If we had Cincinnati in the playoff, what are you telling Coastal Carolina?
And we do this dance every season and spend hours and hours ripping the committee and coming up with our best version of the four teams and then we complain about the process and start comparing best wins and best losses and look at strength of schedule ratings we don't even understand.
This year we added a new wrinkle in comparing number of games played. I hate to break it to you. This is what you are going to get every single year and it doesn't matter if you have four teams or eight teams.
"But if we go to eight teams we can let the five power conference champions in and give the highest ranked G5 team a spot and two at-large spots and everyone will be happy."
Really? Are you kidding yourself? Wait for that 8-4 team who won their division in a three-team tiebreaker to get their conference title game and they beat a 12-0 team and now you have given a 9-4 team a playoff berth. It might sound fair because you are valuing a conference championship, but remember we don't guarantee a conference champion anything now.
And we will then argue about who is 8, 9 ,10 and even 13.
Peoplemay laugh that someone in the NFC East will not only make the playoffs but also host a playoff game with a 7-9 record. But the written rules of the NFL state what any team has to do to make the playoff. You can't find anything other than a vague rundown of carefully worded sentences on the College Football Playoff website about every game counting and access for all.
So why did Notre Dame make the playoff? Because they are Notre Dame and bring a huge TV audience and maybe the committee valued the win over Clemson without Trevor Lawrence more than you do.
Why is Texas A&M not in? Because they got blown out by Alabama and while they did beat Florida they have no other impressive win.
"But didn't Notre Dame's loss to Clemson Saturday look worse than A&M's loss to Alabama earlier in the season?" I don't know but who says the most recent loss always looks worse?
"What about Cincinnati?" What about UCF in 2018? The Knights had won 25 consecutive football games and had back-to-back undefeated seasons and the committee still had them 8th in their final rankings behind a two-loss Michigan team. The committee has tried to carefully explain that schools like Cincinnati and UCF need to build up a resume over a few years to get a real look. For crying out loud, they won 25 straight games and still didn't get a sniff.
Committee chair Gary Barta, the Iowa AD, said a BYU-type schedule before the pandemic might be the formula. I can't explain how stupid that comment is. BYU is an independent and therefore doesn't have 8-9 conference games on the schedule. The original BYU schedule, before the pandemic saw most of the games get canceled, had six power five opponents(at Utah, Michigan State, at Arizona State, at Minnesota, Missouri and at Stanford). Who can schedule anything like that while playing in a conference?
Let us not forget this is about television. The four teams playing in the playoff draw eyeballs. If you are tired of the same teams making the playoff then you fail to realize that there is not an even distribution of talent in college football. Recruiting is not even game so the answer to other teams in the playoff is to try harder.
The committee did what the committee has done for years. Our reaction is the same that it's been every year. You can never satisfy all and the reality is the controversy is good for the game. It keep interest and makes fan bases more passionate. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Final thought: Somehow Audrey became older than Rusty in Christmas Vacation after Rusty was older than Audrey in Vacation.
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