College football drops the ball

Published 7:58 am Friday, December 8, 2023

There is an old football maxim that reads “just win, baby.” There is another that reads “football is the ultimate team sport.”

Somewhere along the line, the current college football playoff committee apparently decided that both are lies.

Unless you’ve been living under some kind of rock the last week or so, you’ve probably heard about undefeated, 13-0, ACC conference champion Florida State being left on the outside looking in of the four-team college football playoff as two teams with losses — Texas and Alabama — were moved ahead of them into the mix.

Doesn’t matter that Texas lost a game in the regular season and barely beat a TCU team with a losing record by three points. Doesn’t matter that Alabama needed a purebred miracle to beat a 6-6 Auburn team that just the previous week had been boat-raced at home 31-10 by New Mexico State.

What did matter is that FSU lost their starting quarterback, Jordan Travis, to a season-ending broken leg a few weeks ago. According to the ‘rules’ the committee operates under, when a team loses a top player that impacts their consideration alongside all of the other teams.

Doesn’t matter that FSU’s backup quarterback led the team to a victory over arch-rival Florida in their stadium, where he suffered a concussion. Doesn’t matter that their third string quarterback led the team to a 10-point win over #14-ranked Louisville in the ACC championship game. Doesn’t matter that the backup quarterback — a coach’s son from Valdosta, by the way — would’ve been back for the playoffs, or that the Seminoles would’ve had a full month to build their offense around him. Doesn’t matter that FSU’s defense has been one of the best in the nation this year, not allowing more than 24 points in any game.

What ended up mattering more was the potential ratings and revenue to come from a high-profile matchup of two blue-bloods in Alabama and Michigan.

Three teams in America defeated every single team on their schedule and won their conference championships. One is ranked #1, one is ranked #2, and the other is on the outside looking in.

By the way — Texas didn’t do it. Alabama didn’t do it.

College football has always been a sport where the regular season represented a de facto playoff, where every game played mattered. If you lost it hurt you, and if you won you were rewarded for it. At some point this year that premise was clearly abandoned in the interest of ratings and money.

In other words, abandoned for greed.

Yes, I know Alabama defeated previous #1 ranked Georgia (who, by the way, was ranked #1 from week one, lost by 3 points and historically dropped all the way to #6, the first time ever a #1 ranked team going into their conference title game has never made the playoffs) and won the SEC championship. Yes, I know Texas won the Big 10 championship. I know all that perfectly well.

But I also know that Alabama and Texas lost games. Florida State did not.

As mentioned earlier, football is a team sport. When offense struggles, defense can step up to compensate, and vice versa. It is much bigger than any one player — or it’s supposed to be.

If Alabama beats Michigan — which is likely — and Texas beats #2 Washington — which is likely — and FSU finds a way to defeat Georgia in the “We Got Hosed” Bowl in Miami, Florida State will be left standing as the only undefeated major team in the nation, and will rightfully claim the national championship as theirs. Not only that, the overwhelming majority of the media and fans will agree with them.

By their actions here, this playoff committee has created the potential for the very scenario they were created to prevent from happening.

The other part of the story that has been conveniently omitted from any ‘official’ discussion is that Michigan’s head coach was suspended for a significant portion of the season for what appears to be systematic cheating. These aren’t allegations anymore — he was suspended by his own conference in a clear acknowledgement of guilt.

So in essence, we’re going to punish a team for a single player and then reward an entire program for cheating? In other words, everyone knows Michigan cheated on every single test — but they’re still being named valedictorian.

I could say that Disney, who owns ESPN, who has a multi-billion dollar contract with the NCAA, might have a grudge against Florida governor Ron Desantis. But that would be silly, wouldn’t it?

At some point, all games played during the regular season have to matter. They just have to, or why are we playing them? If not, then at the beginning just let the ‘committee’ choose the teams they like based on their colors, their tattoos, or their mascots and be done with it.

To be clear, this isn’t really about Alabama or Texas. This mess is not their fault. It is the fault of those bowing down to the corporate mindset that is steadily ruining college football and turning it into NFL Lite. In the end, again, it appears this is less about football and more about old-fashioned greed.

Which means it is rapidly approaching a time where I need to find something else to occupy my Saturday afternoons in the fall.