College Football Playoff Rankings 2018: Did the committee get it right?
The four teams are set for the College Football Playoff, but did the committee get it right?
The College Football Playoff could have avoided all the drama for Selection Sunday and enjoyed a nice brunch and a relaxing day of watching the NFL. All that had to happen was for Wisconsin to remain undefeated and beat Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. Of course, that didn’t happen so we had plenty of drama awaiting to see who the committee would pick for the final spot. Would it be Alabama or Ohio State? Did USC have a fighting chance after winning the Pac-12?
Before those questions are answered, the easy stuff was taken care of in the ACC, SEC and Big 12. The Clemson Tigers dominated the Miami Hurricanes in the ACC Championship Game to secure their spot. The Georgia Bulldogs got revenge on the Auburn Tigers in the SEC Championship Game to secure their spot. The first team to lock themselves in was Baker Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners who had blowout win over the TCU Horned Frogs.
All that was left to be decided was their seeding. Each of the three had a strong argument to take the No. 1 seed. In the end, here’s how the playoff committee ranked the top three teams.
- Clemson
- Oklahoma
- Georgia
No drama here. Oklahoma and Georgia in the Rose Bowl and Clemson will play Alabama/Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.
Now for the final spot.
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Now for the real drama, Alabama has been in every playoff so far but didn’t win their conference or even their own division this year. Further, they had three Top 25 wins this year and the Florida State win lost a lot of luster after the Seminoles struggled to a 6-6 season after they were ranked no. 3 in the preseason. It also stung that Auburn lost on Championship Saturday which dropped some points off their “quality loss.”
As for Ohio State, they had two wins over teams ranked in the top four (Penn State, Wisconsin) when they played. They are the conference champions from what was the toughest conference all year. What hurts them is the 15-point loss at home to Oklahoma and a 31-point loss at 7-5 Iowa.
In the end, the committee went with Alabama over Ohio State and Wisconsin who finished at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
Great cases to be made for each team to be sure and both teams had blips on their resume that gave the committee pause. Ultimately, I think the committee got it right. It was a tough decision to be sure, but they have the four best, most deserving teams who have quality wins on their resume in the field. The difference was Ohio State’s two glaring losses that could not be overlooked.
The College Football Playoff committee got it right, but that won’t go over well in Columbus, but they shouldn’t have lost by 31 at a 7-5 Iowa team.
Now we can get ready for the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl that are played on Jan. 1.
Can’t wait!