Thankfully, the field for the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff was set Sunday morning. Had the process lasted another week, it might have ripped the sport apart and pitted conference commissioners against each other in steel-cage matches.
Not everything sparked outrage when the CFP selection committee revealed the pairings. Oregon and Georgia were the top-two seeds, as expected. Boise State, champion of the Mountain West, and Arizona State, which won the Big 12, received the No. 3 and 4 seeds, respectively, and will have opening-round byes.
Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State will play home games in the opening round.
But that’s where the relative peace and tranquility ended.
The committee granted the final at-large berth to SMU, not Alabama, and you could instantly imagine smoke billowing from the nostrils of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
Alabama (9-3) had more quality wins and played a vastly tougher schedule than the Mustangs (11-2) but also had uglier losses than the ACC runner-up.
That wasn’t the only flashpoint. Boise State was seeded higher than Arizona State despite a weaker schedule — an outcome that sends the Broncos to the Fiesta Bowl (Glendale) for their quarterfinal game and forces the Sun Devils to play in the Peach Bowl (Atlanta).
The debate Sunday was simply a continuation of the past five weeks, which featured athletic directors squabbling on social media, conference commissioners squawking over resumes and the committee chair himself, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, seemingly contradicting the stated selection criteria.
All of it unfolded under the threat of demolition.
Two months ago, executives from the SEC and Big Ten gathered in Nashville to discuss the future of the sport. At the conclusion of the summit, Sankey, the most powerful figure in the sport, told reporters that the CFP process “just has to go incredibly well.”
You did not need a master’s degree in political gamesmanship to grasp the meaning. If the SEC and Big Ten were less than satisfied with their allotments of bids and seeds, they would force changes to the selection process.
Specifically, the behemoths would grant themselves a truckload of automatic bids, reduce access for the other conferences and, potentially, disband the selection committee altogether.
Needless to say, the process did not go “incredibly well” for the SEC.
In fact, it could not have gone much worse.
In addition to Alabama’s exclusion, Tennessee lost the No. 8-9 seed showdown against Ohio State and will open the playoff in Columbus.
Meanwhile, three-loss South Carolina was left out entirely one week after winning at three-loss Clemson, while the Tigers advanced to the CFP with the ACC’s automatic bid. (In the committee’s final rankings, South Carolina was one spot above Clemson.)
The repercussions could ripple through the sport for years.
Earlier this week, another warning flare went skyward from SEC country when Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne posted the following note on the social media platform X:
“When you look at the @CFBPlayoff Principles for its Selection Committee, the first bullet point on the list of considerations is strength of schedule. Not all schedules and conferences are created equal. We’ve worked diligently to add more challenging non-conference home-and-homes, which is good for college football …”
The implication was clear: If Alabama’s schedule strength wasn’t rewarded, the Crimson Tide would rethink the merits of playing A-level non-conference games in the first half of September.
Alabama faced Wisconsin this season and has booked upcoming series with Florida State, Ohio State and Notre Dame. Those could be in jeopardy. Why risk the loss when the benefits of scheduling the game are limited?
And if Alabama cancels marquee matchups, other SEC schools will assuredly follow — potentially sapping the sport of must-see intersectional duels that energize the September competition calendar.
Asked on ESPN about the non-conference scheduling issue, Manuel, the committee chair and Michigan’s athletic director, offered the following: “I would just say, you need to schedule the games you feel are best for your team and your fan base.”
Given the unprecedented nature of the season — with the expanded playoff and engorged conferences — there was no reason to expect a smooth ride from early November, when the first CFP rankings were released, through selection day.
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But the gaffes, misreads and contradictions by the 13-person committee were frequent and severe.
Head-to-head results, schedule strength and quality wins were shoved to the background as the committee, loaded with former coaches, prioritized win-loss record.
It was as if the coaches were collectively channeling their inner Lou Holtz — the former Notre Dame coach was the ultimate sandbagger — and determined a 74- point win over Western Illinois (by Indiana) was equivalent to a 15-point win at Texas (by Georgia).
“One of the things we really need to do,” said Nick Saban, the ESPN analyst and former Alabama coach, “is (recognize) all wins are not the same as the other wins.”
There were risks to selecting Alabama over SMU, as well.
Had the committee excluded the Mustangs following their loss to Clemson in the ACC championship — on a walk-off field goal, no less — the decision would have undermined the credibility of conference title games.
“The committee is going to lose no matter what they do,” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said.
But just as not all wins are created equal, neither are all losses.
Alabama’s out, the SEC is seething and major changes are coming to the CFP as a result.
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