The College Football Playoff Committee screwed the conferences that risked life and limb to save the season
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It was as anticlimactic as it was profoundly unjust. The College Football Playoff committee delivered their annual bounty to the game’s wealthy elite – the same committee who had once upon a time said that “if you take care of business, win your conference, and go undefeated, the Playoff will take care of itself.
This was a lie.
Even during an unprecedented season that turned the entire college football world upside down, the Committee did what they do best: maintain the status quo. Consider, not a single team selected for the Playoff is new to the format. Even worse, not a single team truly deserves to be there.
Alabama didn’t play a single opponent outside of the SEC.
Ohio State played six games. They shouldn’t even qualify.
Clemson and Notre Dame have already played twice, and canceled each other out.
Meanwhile, two programs – Coastal Carolina and Cincinnati – did everything the Committee told them to do, which is to beat Top 25 teams, win its conference, and (as if it’s not hard enough) go undefeated. The Committee’s response was to rank Florida, Oklahoma and Texas A&M ahead of the Bearcats, and rank the Chanticleers completely out of NY6 consideration.
It. Was. A. Lie.
I’m not the only one bitching. While the Committee patted itself on the back for rewarding the same wealthy programs year in and year out, a handful of pundits raised a voice to grouse:
I really feel for Cincinnati. They went 9-0, won a league title and beat three ranked teams. They blew out seven of nine teams on their schedule and finished No. 7 in scoring defense. CFP is becoming like the NCAA Tournament committee, a cabal that annually blocks out mid-majors.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 20, 2020
If you're still watching the ESPN show, Kirk Herbstreit is basically saying the G5 teams should just sit back and take this. "Take the high road."
What a system.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 20, 2020
Teams that made a NY6 Bowl:
🔘 3-loss Florida
🔘 3-loss Iowa State
🔘 3-loss UNCTeams that did not make a NY6 Bowl:
11-0 Coastal Carolina
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 20, 2020
Iowa State getting an NY6 bowl over Coastal is a joke.
— Alex Funderburke (@AlexFunderburke) December 20, 2020
You're right, it's insulting to the Sun Belt to compare it to the Big 12. https://t.co/MLNT11tZ9o
— Chris Vannini 😷 (@ChrisVannini) December 20, 2020
The Playoff is just one insult. The Bowl lineup is a completely separate line-item of Power Privilege. Look at this ghastly menu of sub .500 SEC teams who are awarded a plum Bowl game in 2020:
2-8 South Carolina – Gasparilla Bowl
4-6 Kentucky – Gator Bowl
3-7 Arkansas – Texas Bowl
3-6 Tennessee – Liberty Bowl
2-7 MissState – Armed Forces Bowl
Combined, they have exactly two more wins than Coastal Carolina, And yes, 2-7 Mississippi State is going to the Armed Forces Bowl while 9-2 Army get the shaft. This system is complete crap. It rewards teams not for their merit, but for their privilege.
It was all a lie. The College Football Playoff was supposed to bring balance to college football. We were told we’d have a place at the table so long as we pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps and proved our mettle to out just and benevolent overlords. In this dumb season of COVID, you’d have thought that playing more than 10 games would count for something, or that playing only within your conference would count against you. Nope. Not a bit. It’s they eye test that counts.
Why do we even play?
A former notary public, Jeremy Harper is a professional writer and Chief Instigator for Storm the Castle Creative. He spends much of his free time staring blankly into space.
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