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 come to terms with it like we did on Sunday.
That identity crisis? If the teams that play for the national championship must be the best or the most deserving. In the nine years leading up to this season, the best and most deserving seamlessly became one, resulting in simple decisions about 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 had to make a very difficult decision that guaranteed a worthy team would feel cheated. The committee, for the first time, was going to have to choose what it values most: the teams that won it or the teams that look better on television.
The most deserving Florida State became the first undefeated Power 5 conference champion left out of the field. The Seminoles were the ones who felt cheated.
And with that decision, the committee didn’t just choose teams in a given year. He revealed to the world the ugly truth about college football: The sport is a beauty contest where decisions about which teams can win the national title are sometimes made as much in the cozy boardroom of a hotel in Grapevine, Texas, as in the real field. .
The playoff field is as follows: 1. Michigan, 2. Washington, 3. Texas, 4. Alabama.
Michigan and Washington emerged from the season unscathed. Texas lost a 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 just beat Louisville 16-6 in the ACC Championship Game was relying on a third-string quarterback. The victory was far from impressive.
devastated. disconsolate. With so much disbelief, I wish they broke my leg earlier in the season so everyone could see that this team is so much more than the quarterback. I thought results matter. 13-0 and this list matches any team in those top 4 rankings. Very sorry. Let’s go Noles!
—Jordán Travis (@jordantrav13) December 3, 2023
The committee, knowing they were going to break someone’s heart unfairly, decided to break the heart of the state of Florida. In that room on Saturday night, the committee members decided the Seminoles weren’t good enough for us.
That’s not what sports are supposed to be about. And with the four-team CFP era ending after this season, fans will see it as a broken system that needs 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 a one-loss SEC champion over 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 expected the SEC to be completely shut out for the first time, but the committee, charged with choosing the “best teams,” couldn’t ignore what the ultra-talented Crimson Tide accomplished. But if Alabama loses, how could the committee leave out the team that beat it?
Could not.
This is probably the path of least resistance. Outside of Florida State fans, the general population will remain convinced that the Playoff semifinals will be more entertaining with more high-level teams. The best teams, as they say, won.
The problem with choosing the best is that it is completely subjective and ultimately misleading, given that this is a sport that routinely features unpredictable results and unforeseen races. The last time a team relied on a third-string quarterback heading into the College Football Playoff, Ohio State in the inaugural season of the four-team field 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 that, frankly, was not a pleasant watch for people who love the thrill of great offense. Perception, mistakenly, became reality.
“Florida State is a different team,” CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan said after the field was revealed. “If you look at who they are as a team without Jordan Travis, they’re a different team.”
That’s a well-informed opinion that’s probably true. However, it is not a fact. You could argue that Florida State is so good that it won a Power 5 conference championship game with a true freshman quarterback. In the CFP, Florida State would have returned secondary quarterback Tate Rodemaker with a month to prepare for a semifinal game.
The state of Florida was assaulted.
And his coach did not hide his disappointment.
“I am disgusted and enraged by the committee’s decision today to take away what was won on the field because a small group of people decided they knew better 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 in our guts that the Crimson Tide… the most talented team, on paper, in this sport – are one of the four best teams. Alabama is certainly equipped to win it all.
But Alabama, like peers Georgia and Ohio State, teams with a lot of raw talent on their rosters, lost a game (at home). Better teams have been shut out in the past than this Alabama team because losses had consequences.
Alabama’s loss to Texas was inconsequential because we are in love with the SEC and what it means to beat Georgia. It didn’t matter that Alabama, although perceived as a completely different team in September, lost to the Longhorns. This game could have been a Playoff game in September. Turns out it was an exhibition.
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 aren’t going to matter when it comes to choosing the final four, then there are no consequences for expanding to 12.
The regular season did not decide who arrived this year. Thirteen people did it.
The games mattered. The results did not.
(Photo by Mike Norvell: Isaías Vázquez/Getty Images)
