The College Football Playoff Committee got it wrong by not putting Florida State in the Playoffs this season. An undefeated Power-5 team should not be left out of the Playoffs, even if it means a team that you could make an argument is a Top-4 team is left out.
My first argument for taking this side is that every undefeated Power-5 team should be included in the College Football Playoffs unless each Conference Champion in each Power-5 conference goes the entire season without losing a game. With Florida State being the first Undefeated Power-5 school not to make it to the College Football Playoffs, I understand that is an easy argument to make. My second argument is that Alabama should not be included in the playoffs this season because they lost to Texas earlier this season. We don't need to see that matchup in the National Title game if it comes to that. This take gets iffy because in years past, we've witnessed Alabama and Georgia compete in the playoffs, and in 2022, we saw Georgia, who lost in the SEC Title Game, beat Alabama. I'll stick to my guns here and expand upon this take. To minimize the subjective opinions of a few, each Power-5 Conference Champion should be included in the playoffs with one at-large team. This would mean that participants wouldn't always be a #1-#4 team, but at least the criteria for getting in is mostly black and white. I do not like how the fate of College Football rests on the shoulders of a few opinions. Playoff bids should be as black and white as possible. You win your conference, you're in. It's as simple as that. That sixth team is for the College Football Playoff Committee to decide so they don't get their panties in a wad, and they can determine which two teams get a first-round bye. Even still, the College Football Playoff Committee shouldn't determine who's in. I like the idea of the AP poll making that decision because it's not just 13 people. Based on my resume alone, I have a system to determine who should be in and out. A points system that is cut and dry so there is no questioning who the Top-4 teams are. Win against... #1-5 team: 10 Points #6-10: 7 Points #11-15: 5 Points #16-20: 4 Points #20-25: 3 Points Unranked P5: 2 Points Unranked G5: 1 Point Loss Against... #1-5 team: -1 Point #6-10: -2 Points #11-15: -3 Points #16-20: -4 Points #20-25: -5 Points Unranked P5: -7 Points Unranked G5: -10 Points It's not a perfect system, but if you can develop a better system based on a team's resume alone, please leave it in the comments. Based on this system, the Top-6 teams are as follows... #1: Washington Huskies - 42 Points #2: Michigan - 38 Points #3: Florida State - 36 Points #4: Alabama - 33 Points #5: Texas - 31 Points #6: Georgia - 29 Points This system contradicts what I stated earlier about Texas getting in over Alabama, but again, this is based on resume alone. This shows that Florida State has a better resume than Texas and Alabama and should be in the playoffs. Y'all can argue about Alabama and Texas in the comments. My third argument is that Jordan Travis' injury should not have played as big of a role in determining who's in as it did. I agree it is a factor to consider, but a team is more than just a quarterback. Say Joe Burrow went down in 2020. LSU would have been competitive and had a good shot at winning the National Title. Hell, we had two consecutive years of Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa playing musical chairs in the title game, and Alabama still got one National Title out of it. The last point I'll make is that the AP and Coaches Polls agree that Florida State is a Top-3 team. That has to be worth something. The Coaches Poll is specifically interesting because Alabama and Texas are tied for the #4 position. There is a part of me that thinks the CFP Committee couldn't decide between Alabama and Texas, so they just said screw it, let's put them both in. As we move to the 12-team playoff format, hopefully, there won't be this much controversy. This year, no matter if you left any combination of Alabama, Texas, Florida State, or Georgia, there would have been some controversy. All four of these teams are good enough to compete in the Playoffs. Even though we are moving to the 12-team format, there will be some controversy about who the #9-12 teams are, but at that point, do we expect a team outside of the Top 8 to make it to the National Title? The moral of the story here is there needs to be a more black-and-white criterion that teams need to meet to participate in the playoffs so that a team like Florida State knows why they didn't get in, instead of a select few having the fate of college football lying on their shoulders. At the end of the day, the real villain here is Oklahoma because they beat Texas and threw a monkey wrench into the mixer when they didn't win the Big XII. If Oklahoma had just won the Big XII, FSU, and Oklahoma would have been in because then you'd have four undefeated conference champions in the Playoffs. This is really just payback for beating the Sooners in last season's Cheez-It Bowl.
1 Comment
12/5/2023 09:12:34 am
Have long advocated for some type of point system. The one you post is interesting and would make a good starting point.
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AuthorDawson Haywood Archives
December 2024
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