YIKES! The very thing that I thought would happen actually happened in reverse. The Big 12 was penalized for not having a championship game. Meanwhile the phones were ringing off the wall last night, I am sure, giving all of the conference winners a chance to strut their stuff in one last championship game. Those four games really defined how the committee arrived at their decision for the inaugural CFP.
All six teams at the top of the rankings won their games and now I am left to wonder why the committee picked TCU number three last week then dropped them 3 spots only because they played a conference doormat in their last game and blew them out. Baylor won a quality game in week 15 by beating K-State and Ohio State continued to roll over a very weak Big Ten schedule by knocking off and shutting out Wisconsin, albeit with a third string quarterback. Ohio State made the most dominant argument on the field with that shutout.
It becomes obvious to this writer that the committee was hoping for a much different twist to championship Saturday. Figuring that Baylor, Ohio State and possibly Florida State might lose would give credence to an alternate thought process. TCU would be the Big 12 champion with a Baylor loss and thus get in as a three or four seed. Ohio State with their third string quarterback was actually expected to lose to a powerful running attack featuring Melvin Gordon and that would have also made selection to the Big 12 a simple task. Plan three would be a struggling but resilient Florida State going down to defeat in the ACC Championship and their body of work would have left them out for sure. Well folks, none of the aforementioned even came close to happening.
Ohio State and Baylor both lost to teams out of the top 25 polls, while TCU actually lost to a ranked Baylor. That loss will simmer in Fort Worth for years to come as it really was the basis for the Horned Frogs staying out of the final four. To be fair to the committee, I am really glad I didn’t have to make the decision on the final slot in the playoff. Perhaps in the future they could tweak the system again and come up with something that works for all five power conferences. In NCAA basketball, you may not be seeded as a number one, but you still get to go to the big dance.
My son emphatically stated to me last night that if Florida State remained undefeated and wasn’t brought into the CFP that he would never watch NCAA football again. His wish was answered quite nicely and it would be hard to argue for Oregon who won their rematch with Arizona very handily. Alabama and the SEC West continued their dominance over the weak SEC East and it showed with another powerful statement game in the Georgia Dome.
I am left to wonder what kind of a plum will the committee dangle over the Big 12 to soothe their battered egos. Add to that rhetoric how the bowl people will now slot Boise State and Northern Illinois, both winners of minor conference championships with identical 11-2 records. The wheels will be spinning and a thousand fans will be screaming and have lots to say about this mess.
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