Who Gets In
Over the years, football - professional and college - has gained more and more popularity. They have both also continued to make millions and millions of dollars. As Chris mentioned a few blogs ago in The Greed of College Football, the NCAA is one of the most corrupt organizations. In the most recent years players are transferring away from schools in order to receive more money for NIL (Name, Image and Likeness).
With college football gaining more and more popularity, it rivals the NFL. Fans look forward to College Football Saturdays just as much as NFL Sundays. Personally, I try to schedule my Saturdays around Michigan football. My wife is aware there are certain Saturdays I need to be home to watch the game (e.g., the Michigan-Ohio State game). If I am not home, thanks to streaming TV I can watch the game while I am out and get the stares from my wife that I am watching/listening to certain games.
Over the years, I can remember as far back as the 80s, way before we had the BCS and College Football Playoff, we had two polls to go off of. Those polls decided who would be the national champion and at times we have had a shared national champion, if the polls were divided. The arguments which would ensue over how could this team be number one over this other team and how could we not have a unanimous national champion went on for years.
In the 80’s, it was Miami, Notre Dame, Penn State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, BYU, Colorado for a short time in the later 80s and even West Virginia, these were the teams which battled mostly during this time. In the 90s it was a lot of these same teams, adding in Michigan, Texas, Washington and some others. In 1998, we started with the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) which took into account many factors of how the teams were ranked in the polls and we finally had a game which would pit number one versus number two in the polls.
Although this finally gave us a “true” national champion, many still clamored for more because they felt a team at three or four in the polls, could/should be in this national championship game. During this time, we had many years of people calling for some sort of playoff because nobody is ever happy. In 2014, we finally got what many others were asking for and the College Football Playoff (CFP) started. This gave us four teams which would play in a semifinal and then a national championship game to decide a champion. This also wasn’t good enough for many people because, like I mentioned, people are never happy, so next year we will begin a twelve-team playoff.
With all of this being said, this year’s playoff has brought the most controversy we have ever seen since the CFP started and I feel that the NCAA very unjustly ended one team’s championship aspirations. Michigan, ranked number one, won all of their games and the conference championship but also had a sign stealing scandal in which Coach Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten for three games. Washington, ranked number two, won all of their games and beat Oregon for the second time in the final Pac-12 championship. After that, this is where all the chaos started.
On Friday (12/1/23), the aforementioned Pac-12 championship game took place and guaranteed Washington a berth on the playoff. On Saturday afternoon (12/2/23), there were four conference championship games which took place (the Big 12, SEC, Big Ten and ACC). Michigan won the Big Ten championship guaranteeing them a spot in the playoff. Now the chaos. Number seven ranked Texas beat number eighteen ranked Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship, number four ranked Florida State beat number fourteen ranked Louisville in the ACC championship and last but certainly not least number eight ranked Alabama beat number one ranked Georgia in the SEC championship game.
When the final rankings came out Sunday (12/3/23), it was mass chaos. Michigan and Washington are ranked number 1 and 2 as expected. Texas, now 12-1, who had beaten Alabama earlier this year, moved up four spots to number 3. Alabama, now also 12-1, moved up four spots as well to number four. What this did was knock still-undefeated Florida State, who had been ranked number four, and, out of the playoffs. This was especially unfortunate for FSU, who had lost their Heisman candidate quarterback Jordan Travis and second string QB Tate Rodemaker, yet still kept winning with their third string quarterback. Many believe Alabama, who beat Georgia, and Texas, who beat Alabama, both with one-loss seasons, deserve to be in the playoff, although Florida State won their conference and was undefeated. In my humble opinion, it is preposterous that Florida State (who beat number thirteen LSU in their first game of the season which was dubbed one of the biggest games of the season at the time) should be penalized because of injuries when they were ranked number four after last week. A lot of people claim that Alabama is the best one loss team in the country and they deserve to be in the playoff.
Let me tell you this. In this man’s opinion, Florida State won their conference with a third string QB and should not be penalized for injuries. Their second string QB would most likely be ready for the playoff, which will not be played until January 1. Florida State should have been moved up a spot to number three and Texas, by virtue of beating Alabama IN ALABAMA earlier this year, should be number four, which would give Alabama the number five spot and out of the playoff. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but how can you penalize a team because they lost two players to injury. The only reason this happened is because the team on the bubble was named Alabama and their coach is Nick Saban. If this has been any other team in the country, except for maybe Georgia, they would not have been given that last spot in the playoff. My Michigan team will play Alabama on January 1 and more than ever I hope they win to beat the team that should not be there!!
This ended one of the craziest last weekends in college football in a very long time, IF EVER!! Also, don’t forget - next Saturday we get one of the best rivalries around in Army-Navy.