Rivalry week, WOW!
What a weekend of college football we just witnessed. Upsets, brawls and 10s of games of the most exciting football we have seen this entire season. And people were saying that the 12-team playoff would make the regular season meaningless…ridiculous.
As a college football fan, I will never find the regular season meaningless; however, if anything were to make that true, it would be the bias shown to the SEC.
The SEC has been far from its usual dominance this season. The conference has looked mediocre and there is no true top dog with the conference intrenched in a circle of stink.
However, the College Football Playoff committee will have you believe that nothing has changed, and the SEC is still dominant. I am here to tell you only two or three teams from the south deserve to make the playoff.
Before I continue, for clarification on who deserves to make the playoff from SEC: Tennessee and possibly both the participants of the conference championship.
The SEC showed the current state of their “dominance” to the rest of the country many times this season:
LSU lost to USC
Auburn lost to Cal
Mississippi State lost to Arizona State
Vanderbilt lost to Georgia State
Florida lost to Miami
Texas A&M lost to Notre Dame
And Arkansas lost to Oklahoma State
Some of these losses now seem pitiful. In their respective conference games, USC went 4-5(smh), Georgia State went 1-7, Oklahoma State went 0-9 and Cal went 2-6.
So how can the SEC be the best conference in the country if their middle-tier teams are getting beat by other conferences’ bad teams?
These may not be the top dogs of the SEC, but they’ve beaten said top dogs. Vanderbilt beat No. 11 Alabama and nearly beat No. 2 Texas, Florida and LSU beat No. 13 Ole Miss, and Arkansas beat No. 7 Tennessee.
So if these middle-of-the-pack teams are beating the top teams, then how is this the best conference? The Big 12 does the same thing and is heavily scrutinized by the media (myself included) but the SEC is the SEC and has a large media conglomerate backing it (which shall go unnamed for the sake of my future employment.)
Now what about Georgia? The Bulldogs are the only top team I did not mention, but, Georgia has not gone unscathed.
The Bulldogs were two points from bowing out to a lowly Kentucky team and lost to both Ole Miss and Alabama, two games where Georgia did not show up in the first half.
At its best, Georgia can beat anyone. The Bulldogs knocked off both Texas and Tennessee earlier this year, but for about 80% of the year, they have not looked like a good team.
This past week against rival Georgia Tech, Georgia pulled out the win in a thrilling eight-overtime game, but it should not have been in that position!
A truly great team would have beat the brakes off their mediocre rival, not let questionable refereeing and eight overtimes decide the game. Miami’s loss to Georgia Tech was considered a bad loss. If Georgia had lost to the Yellow Jackets, suddenly it would have been a “quality loss.”
When someone from the Big Ten barely beats a lesser opponent, the narrative is “That is not a real contender, championship teams blow bad teams out.” When the SEC does the same, the story is “What a gritty win, championship-level teams find a way to win.” Make it make sense!
It is absolutely absurd that the Bulldogs are still a legitimate contender for the CFP, let alone the national title.
Moving on to why only two, or at most three, teams should make the playoff…The loser of the SEC Championship should be on the bubble of the playoff.
Neither a three-loss Georgia team that has looked terrible at times, nor a Texas team with the easiest schedule in the SEC should have a shot at a title.
Texas has only beaten four teams with a record above .500, none of which are ranked, and none of those four teams have more than eight wins. The Longhorns somehow only played two teams in the top half of the SEC standings, and one of them was their loss to Georgia.
That being said, maybe only one of these teams deserves to make it.
No three-loss team should make the CFP, period. A Georgia loss should be the end of their title contention.
Texas has played nobody. If they lose, the Longhorns will likely make the playoff with two losses. However, they look like Indiana from the south, with a backup quarterback who has cool relatives and some swagger.
If the Hoosiers made the Big Ten title and lost to Oregon, they would have been promptly booted from playoff contention.
Texas has yet to prove they are a real contender, same as Indiana. The Longhorns are just a bigger brand.
Now let’s talk about Alabama. The Crimson Tide are likely going to sneak into this playoff, despite having three losses.
Alabama has looked terrible at times, they just happen to look less terrible than other three-loss teams.
The Crimson Tide have beaten Georgia, and… that’s about it. Vanderbilt shocked the world when the Commodores knocked off Alabama, then two weeks later the Crimson Tide lost to Tennessee.ust when it was starting to look good again for Alabama, it got hammered by 6-6 Oklahoma.
Alabama will make the playoff due to SEC black magic, but this team is not good. The Crimson Tide will get a chance to prove us all wrong, but they are not the same without Nick Saban.
Tennessee is the only team guaranteed to make the playoff. The Vols have a 10-2 record with some quality wins and no more chances to lose…but I digress.
The SEC is just not good!
People need to accept that this year!
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will make a few Sopranos-style phone calls to the higher-ups at the NCAA to ensure at least four teams make the playoff, but this conference is ridiculously overrated this season.
With that long rant being done with… here is my playoff prediction of what will happen based on the committee’s previous rankings, done in the CFP style ranking, so do not be alarmed by the high-ranked Group of Five team.
No. 1 Oregon-Bye
No. 2 Georgia-Bye
No. 3 Clemson- Bye
No. 4 Boise State-Bye
No. 5 Notre Dame vs No. 12 Arizona State
No. 6 Penn State vs No. 11 Alabama
No. 7 Texas vs No. 10 Indiana
No. 8 Tennessee vs No. 9 Ohio State
That looks like a great slate for TV ratings for the aforementioned unnamed broadcasting company I would like to work for someday. It doesn’t look like a slate of the most deserving teams.
Now, this is how I would personally rank the playoff.
No. 1 Oregon-Bye
No. 2 Georgia-Bye
No. 3 Boise State- Bye
No. 4 Clemson-Bye
No. 5 Notre Dame vs No. 12 Arizona State
No. 6 Penn State vs No. 11 Texas
No. 7 Tennessee vs No. 10 Indiana
No. 8 Ohio State vs No. 9 SMU
I dunked on the Longhorns a lot, but they are more deserving than the likes of Alabama or Miami. One could argue two-loss Miami deserves the spot more, but the Longhorns aren’t questionable refereeing away from an 8-4 record.
I will give the Longhorns some credit, as their defense looked nasty against their bitter Lonestar State rival, Texas A&M this past week.
We’re a week away from knowing what the playoff will look like this season. With what I’ve seen so far, I can only watch with intense skepticism.
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