College Football Playoff Thoughts
We finally know which 12 college football teams will be participating in the College Football Playoffs this winter, and I honestly think the committee did a decent job with the rankings.
Indiana
Ohio State
Georgia
Texas Tech
Oregon
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Alabama
Miami
Tulane
James Madison
The top 4 seeds were set with no one being able to jump into the top 4 following the results of the conference championship games. Indiana and Ohio State played in the Big 10 Championship which meant both teams were locked into the top 4 since they were playing either the #1 or #2 ranked team in the country. Georgia stays at #3 following their win against Alabama in the SEC Championship which, as a Georgia fan, I am quite happy with. Texas Tech remains at #4 following their win in the Big 12 Championship. These conference championship games played a big part in the rest of the seeding, but we will get to that in a little bit. The only issue I have with the top 4 rankings is the fact that Ohio State only dropped to #2 with their loss and Georgia and Texas Tech wins. Both Georgia and Texas Tech dominated their games, blowing out Alabama and BYU respectively. I find it hard to understand how a loss does not drop you below teams that won, especially since Georgia and Ohio State both sit at 12-1 on the season. This goes against a precedent set by the committee in 2023 when #1 ranked Georgia dropped all the way to #6 following a SEC Championship game loss to #8 ranked Alabama by only 3 points. That Alabama team had only lost 1 game all year while Georgia was undefeated going into that game. The final playoff rankings dropped Georgia to #6 while moving Alabama all the way up to #4 allowing them the chance to compete in the playoffs. With all that said, I am not upset with Georgia staying at #3 because they got an “easier” draw for their first playoff game facing the winner between Tulane and Ole Miss.
Moving on to the #11 and #12 seeds, Tulane and James Madison. Both of these teams won their conferences which granted them an automatic bid into the playoffs thanks to the rules being a guaranteed 5 spots for the highest ranked conference champions. BYU lost the Big 12 championship game which dropped them from the playoffs due to already being on the bubble, and unranked Duke defeated #17 Virginia to win the ACC which meant #25 James Madison got the final automatic spot into the playoffs. Lots of people complain about the automatic bids into the playoffs which is fair because it means we do not get the 12 best teams in the playoffs, but without the automatic bids, we would likely never see teams from outside the power conferences reach the playoffs which is not right either. I think it is a fun story for these teams to get into the playoffs, but I doubt they will do anything of note.
Now the entertaining part, seeds #5-#10. These spots can go to any team in the field if the committee feels like they should be in. #5, #6, #7, #8 were pretty much guaranteed to be a mix of Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma with those teams being the highest ranked teams to not make their conference championship games. I have no problem with any of these teams being included, but you could make an interesting case for Ole Miss with Lane Kiffin leaving the team before the playoff run which could throw a wrench into things. We have seen the committee do things like this with Florida State in 2023. Florida State was undefeated ACC champions, but they lost their star quarterback to injury in late November. The team played the last game of the season and the ACC championship game with their backup quarterback, and the team won both games, but not as convincingly as they had been winning with their starter. When the final playoff rankings came out, Florida State had been jumped by Alabama who had 1 loss on the year. Florida State was punished because they did not have their starting quarterback for the playoffs, so I could have seen the committee doing something similar to this Ole Miss team. The final two spots were between Alabama, Notre Dame, and Miami. Alabama had just been dominated in the SEC championship game losing 28-7 to Georgia, and Notre Dame and Miami had been sitting at home watching. The committee kept Alabama at #9 giving them one of the two spots instead of doing what they did in 2023 to Georgia after losing the SEC championship. This is the problem I have with the rankings because how can you leave a 3 loss team in the playoffs that just got dominated when you drop a 1 loss team who lost by 3 points and keep out an undefeated conference champion in 2023. The precedent had already been set, but was not kept up which makes no sense. With Alabama keeping their spot, the last spot was between Notre Dame and Miami. I hoped the committee would do the right thing and put Miami in over Notre Dame, and they actually did it. Miami jumped Notre Dame into the playoffs when neither team played a game. However, Miami already has a win over Notre Dame this season which gave Miami the edge.
As a whole, I think the committee did a pretty good job with this playoff ranking as compared to some in the previous years. While I may not agree with some of the decisions they made, I think it is a step in the right direction for the playoffs.