Four Team College Playoffs - A Fitting End To A Corrupt System

'Touchdown Noles!'Photo Credit: Robert via Flickr

This is the last season where the "national champion" will be determined by politics and money instead of on the field, and it couldn't be ending more fittingly. (Reference Article here)

For years I've been saying "Just wait, they'll figure out a way to leave a Power Five school out if they aren't prestigious enough or they need space for a team they'd rather have in." Everyone said I was crazy, that there would be no way they'd leave an undefeated Power Five school out.

Well, yesterday I was proven right. Florida State did everything it needed to do but was left out for Alabama. Now, do I think Alabama is currently the better team than Florida State, especially without Jordan Travis? Yes absolutely. Do I think they'd win a head-to-head matchup? Probably. The issue is not whether or not the committee got it right based on their criteria, it's the fact that the criteria need to exist in the first place. In no other sport, if you can even call college football a true sport at this point, does a team win all of their games just to not have a chance to compete, the key word there, is COMPETE, for a title.

This isn't the first time though even in this system that we have come close to this moment. Ironically in the first College Football Playoff season, the Seminoles were the only undefeated team in the nation yet were ranked third in the playoffs, and if it wasn't for the Big XII not having a conference championship game they could have suffered the same fate as they did this year. In 2015 while the Big Ten has a much higher prestige rating than the ACC it would have been interesting to see if the committee would have put in an undefeated Iowa team if they had been able to beat Michigan in the Big Ten Championship. At that point, my guess is yes, but who knows, they might have figured out a way to put in a one-loss Ohio State instead because of the fanbase. In 2017 this same scenario might have happened to Wisconsin if they had won the Big Ten Championship, with a 10-2 Auburn team at two in the second to last ranking. They used the loss by Wisconsin to Ohio State to put both Georgia and Alabama in. Not to mention Miami, who were undefeated until the second to last week of the season. If things had turned out differently that year could have been especially crazy, with two non-power schools sitting undefeated.

What those years of the past are showing is that this system has always been one unlucky break away from revealing its corruption, and it just so happened that it finally happened in its final year of existence. This isn't even talking about Group of Five teams who have been left out as well, such as Western Michigan and UCF. No matter whether you believe the committee got it right, you have to acknowledge that the system does not allow for competition and prove it on the field. Champions need to be determined by the players on the field, not by people in a backroom deciding based on ratings and money. Finally, in 2024, college football will have a real National Champion.