By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com College Football Blogger
With sympathies to Florida State (as well as to Georgia), the College Football Playoff committee got it right. Alabama in, FSU (and Georgia) to a consolation bowl.
When there are only four spots for eight deserving teams, half of them get left out, even if you went undefeated in your conference or only lost once in 30 games to a top team. Florida State lost out because it’s quarterback is out for the season with an injury but it should have been out due to its 55th place in strength of schedule.
It played – and beat – only one team of significance, LSU. Alabama also beat LSU, as well as Georgia. It’s only loss was to Texas, an unquestioned playoff team. Florida State also played in a much weaker conference than the SEC and as a measuring stick of a sort-of head-to-head, struggled to beat a so-so Lousiville team that the previous week had lost to Kentucky, which had previously been steamrolled by Bama.
So Florida State’s ire should not be aimed at Tuscaloosa but up north to Ann Arbor. Michigan, the #1 team the eyes of the committee, has a strengh of schedule worst than that of FSU. It’s 58th. Big Blue’s non-conference schedule consited of East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green. In the Big 10 it played only two teams with a pulse. One was Penn State, which can’t ever seem to beat a Top 10 team and the other was Ohio State, which played a similar lackluster schedule so it’s difficult to evalute how good the Buckeyes are, or are not.
As for Georgia, the Bulldogs have an amazing record. And it’s not winning back-to-back National Championship or even a 29-game winning streak. It’s going 40-0 against all other teams in its past 43 games and 1-2 against Alabama. And that one occured when the Tide was down its two top receivers in the National Championship game, a few weeks after getting hammered by Bama in the SEC Championship.
Nick Saban and Alabama is to Georgia what Stanford and now Washington is to Oregon.
Georgia lost to Alabama by three points. It had a long field goal bounce off the crossbar. That game after a flinch by an offensive lineman that moved the kick back five yards. It’s impossible to say how the game and strategy might have changed had the field goal been good, but Dawg fans will forever wonder “what if” and claim that such a powerful and well-coached team should not have fallen out of the playoffs. They have an argument but there was simply no room for them. Wait till next year.
At least Michigan will finally play a real team, Alabama, in the Rose Bowl in the CFP semifinals. We’ll all know for sure if the committee, or me, is correct about the Wolverines. Personally, I’m picking Alabama. For one thing, Michigan hasn’t faced any quarterback like Jalen Milroe and if the Tide continues to run plays that feature his running, he’s likely to run all around the UM D.
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