Playoff nightmare scenario disses Florida St.
- col-dave-mast
- December 11, 2023
- 443
If ever there was a poster child of a season for the NCAA football playoff system, this may well be the year.
The front end of the chart-toppers was loaded with strong but not great caliber teams.
Top-seed Michigan was about as strong from start to finish as any team out there this year, but the Wolverines’ strength of schedule wasn’t anything to write home about.
A one-loss Texas team finished second and whipped up on an Alabama team that snuck into the No. 4 seed by taking down previously undefeated Georgia, which was ranked number one the entire season until the loss, the Crimson Tide squeaking past the Bulldogs 27-24.
Washington, the playoff’s No. 2 seed, cruised through the regular season and boasts a 20-game winning streak.
When the smoke had cleared and the NCAA playoff selection committee had boiled down all the numbers, it pitted No. 1 Michigan versus No. 4 Alabama and No. 2 Washington versus No. 3 Texas.
Are those teams worthy of playoff spots?
They sure are.
However, the process leaves out some other teams who have proven they could just as well compete for a crown.
We can start with Florida State University.
FSU was posting monster offensive numbers early on, including thrashing LSU, but the Seminoles are now on their third-string quarterback, and a lackluster 16-6 win over No. 13 Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game that wasn’t pretty to watch was enough to persuade the committee members that FSU wasn’t Final Four material.
Never mind that FSU was perfect on the season.
This begs the question, should the committee reward a team for getting the job done, or should its members throw their own opinions into the mix and decide that nobody would want to watch FSU play in a playoff game because a) they’re not sexy; b) they’re not watchable without a top-notch quarterback; and c) they would be death for ratings and TV income.
Let me pose this question: If FSU had done what it did with its starting first-string quarterback at the helm, would the committee have gone a different direction?
My guess to that question is, yes.
So, what’s the difference?
FSU did everything it should do to capture a spot in the Final Four, and most importantly, the team found a way to overcome a major obstacle to beat the nation’s 13th-ranked team in their conference title game.
Next up is Georgia, which will now face the aforementioned Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
Georgia was considered the cream of the crop all season long as the Bulldogs chased a third consecutive national championship.
That three-point loss at the end of the year dropped the Bulldogs out of the playoffs. Should the two-time defending champions get a shot at retaining their title? Like Alabama, they had one loss.
However, several things played against Georgia.
Strike one, it lost head-to-head to Alabama.
Strike two, it lost at the wrong time. Had it lost its season opener or in week three and then run the table, I think the Bulldogs would be in.
Strike three, they were two-time defending national champions.
Call it the Michael Jordan Syndrome. Call it the Tiger Woods Syndrome. The fact is, when you’re the big dog, when you’re always winning, when everyone but your area roots against you, you have to be a little bit more, a little bit better, a little more special.
Ohio State University had one blemish, a tight loss to top-seed Michigan in the final week of the regular season. That game came down to one play on the Buckeyes’ final drive.
OK, so you just fell to the top seed in all of football on a last-second drive. When a team proves it can go toe-to-toe with the top team in the nation, doesn’t that warrant an invitation to the playoffs to prove its worth?
The Oregon Ducks and their 52 different uniforms fell to No. 2 Washington by a field goal, not once this season but twice. Other than that, they were dominant. Does that not merit a chance to play for a title?
Sadly, those teams on the outside looking in will have to wait until next season when the NCAA goes to a 12-team playoff format in which the top four seeds receive byes.
The question this year? Is the best team staying at home come playoff time?
We will never know for sure.
One thing I will say, though, is this.
Championship teams make plays when it matters most.
They complete critical drives at the end of the game.
They make crucial stops to sew up a win.
They do what is necessary to win games, not to lose by three points or to come up just shy on the last drive.
Yes, these teams on the outside looking in can complain all they want, but everyone other than Florida State has nobody to point a finger at but themselves. The Seminoles will just have to live with getting hosed because they were deemed not sexy enough to compete for something they had rightfully earned.