The new, 12-team College Football Playoff brings with it a promise to be bigger, more exciting, more lucrative.
Perfect or 100% fair? Well, nobody ever believed that.
The first expanded playoff bracket unveiled Sunday left a presumably deserving Alabama team on the sideline in favor of an SMU squad that finished with a better record after playing a schedule that was not as difficult.
It ranked undefeated Oregon first but set up a possible rematch against Ohio State, the team that came closest to beating the Ducks this year.
It treated underdog Boise State like a favorite and banged-up Georgia like a world beater at No. 2.
It gave Ohio State home-field advantage against Tennessee for reasons it would take a supercomputer to figure out.
It gave the sport the multiweek tournament it has longed for, but also ensured there will be plenty to grouse about between now and when the trophy is handed out on Jan. 20 after what will easily be the longest college football season in history.
All of it, thankfully, will be sorted out on the field starting with first-round games on campuses Dec. 20 and 21, then over three succeeding rounds that will wind their way through traditional bowl sites.
Maybe Oregon coach Dan Lanning, whose undefeated Ducks are the favorite to win it all, put it best when he offered: “Winning a national championship is not supposed to be easy.”
Neither, it turns out, is figuring out who should play for it.
Alabama comes up short in the bracket’s biggest debate
The Big Ten will lead the way with four teams in the tournament, followed by the SEC with three and the ACC with two. The lasting memory from the inaugural bracket will involve the decision that handed the ACC that second bid.
Alabama of the SEC didn’t play Saturday. SMU of the ACC did. The Mustangs fell behind by three touchdowns to Clemson before coming back to tie. But they ultimately lost 34-31 on a 56-yard field goal as time expired.
“We were on pins and needles,” SMU coach Rhett Lashley said. “Until we saw the name ‘SMU’ up there, we were hanging on the edge. We’re really, really happy and thankful to the committee for rewarding our guys for their total body of work.”
The Mustangs only had two losses, compared to three for the Crimson Tide. Even though SMU’s schedule wasn’t nearly as tough, the committee was impressed by the way the Mustangs came back against Clemson.
“We just felt, in this particular case, SMU had the nod above Alabama,” said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, the chairman of the selection committee. “But it’s no disrespect to Alabama’s strength of schedule. We looked at the entire body of work for both teams.”
Crimson Tide AD gracious, but looking for answers
Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne was gracious, up to a point.
“Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country,” he said on social media.
He acknowledged — despite all of Alabama’s losses coming against conference opponents this season — that the Tide’s push to schedule more games against teams from other major conferences in order to improve its strength of schedule did not pay off this time.
“That is not good for college football,” Byrne said.
Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State join Oregon with first-round byes
Georgia, the SEC champion, was seeded second; Boise State, the Mountain West champion, earned the third seed; and Big 12 titlist Arizona State got the fourth seed and the fourth and final first-round bye.
All will play in quarterfinals at bowl games on Dec. 31-Jan. 1.
Clemson stole a bid and the 12th seed with its crazy win over SMU, the result that ultimately cost Alabama a spot in the field. The Tigers moved to No. 16 in the rankings, but got in as the fifth-best conference winner.
Automatic byes and bids made the bracket strange
The conference commissioners’ idea to give conference champions preferable treatment in this first iteration of the 12-team playoff could be up for reconsideration after this season.
The committee actually ranked Boise State, the Mountain West Champion, at No. 9 and Big 12 champion Arizona State at No. 12, but both get to skip the first round.
Another CFP guideline: There’s no reseeding of teams after each round, which means no break for Oregon. The top-seeded Ducks will face the winner of Tennessee-Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Oregon beat Ohio State 32-31 earlier this year in one of the season’s best games.
What the matchups look like
No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas, Dec. 21. Clemson is riding high after the SMU upset, while Texas is 0-2 against Georgia and 11-0 vs. everyone else this season. The winner faces … Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. Huh?
No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Penn State, Dec. 21. The biggest knock against the Mustangs was that they didn’t play any big boys with that 60th-ranked strength of schedule. Well, now they get to. The winner faces … Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Yes, SMU vs. Boise was the quarterfinal we all expected.
No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame, Dec. 20. Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti thought his team deserved a home game. Well, not quite but close. The winner faces … Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The Bulldogs got the No. 2 seed despite a throwing-arm injury to QB Carson Beck. But what else was the committee supposed to do?
No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State, Dec. 21. The Buckeyes (losses to Oregon, Michigan) got home field over the Volunteers (losses to Arkansas, Georgia) in a matchup of programs with two of the biggest stadiums in football. The winner faces … Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Feels like that matchup should come in the semifinals or later.
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