Thirteen committee members had the tough decision of selecting four teams to play in the inaugural College Football Playoff.
On Sunday, the College Football Playoff bracket was revealed to the nation. The selection committee decided Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State will be battling for a national championship.
Alabama and Oregon were the obvious picks for the first and second spots. Both were conference champions and both had only one loss on the season to a team ranked in the Top 10.
For a team with back-to-back undefeated seasons, you would think Florida State would be a shoe-in, but that wasn’t the case. The Seminoles struggled in the second half of the season and played down to their inferior competition. Their last four games were all decided by five points or less. With their late season struggles and their lack of a difficult schedule, I would have left out Florida State until this past weekend. In the ACC Championship, FSU beat a solid Georgia Tech team that is a pain to play due to their triple-option offense. Even with their late season struggles and all the controversy that has surrounded their team, they have won every game they’ve played in, which is very deserving of a spot in the College Football Playoff.
The last spot was the one that caused the most drama. TCU, Baylor, and Ohio State fought for the final spot in the playoff. All of the teams had one loss and were named conference champions. The major discrepancy was between TCU and Baylor. Both are considered co-champions of the Big 12, despite Baylor giving TCU their only loss of the season.
Instead of crowning Baylor as the sole Big 12 champion as they should have been, they named the Bears and Horned Frogs co-champions and that probably ruined any chance for the Big 12 to be represented in the College Football Playoff. The committee couldn’t seem to make up their mind and looked bad with their handling of TCU.
The Horned Frogs came into the last week of the regular season ranked No.3, ahead of Florida State in the College Football Playoff Rankings. They went on to beat Iowa State 55-3 and claimed their half of the Big 12 championship. Baylor took care of Kansas State to claim the Big 12 title as well and Ohio State dominated Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big 10 championship. In the final rankings of the season, TCU fell three spots and was left behind Ohio State and Baylor. Just last week, TCU was ahead of Florida State, Baylor, and Ohio State. After a convincing 52-point win, they move down three spots? Doesn’t really make sense.
Instead of making the difficult decision between pick TCU or Baylor, the selection committee gave the fourth spot to the Ohio State Buckeyes. No one outside of Columbus thought the Buckeyes would have gotten this far after losing star quarterback Braxton Miller before the start of the season. Back-up J.T. Barrett played great football throughout the season and led Ohio State to the opportunity they have now. After Barrett went down with a season-ending injury, third-string quarterback Cardale Jones sealed the deal for the Buckeyes in the Big 10 championship.
As good of a season as Ohio State has had, I do not agree with them being in the playoff. Their one loss was at home to Virginia Tech who finished with a 6-6 record. That loss is a lot worse than Baylor’s loss to West Virginia or TCU’s loss to Baylor. None of the three teams had an out-of-conference game worth mentioning to help their resume’s look any better. TCU did beat Minnesota, who is ranked, but it’s hard for me to give any credit to being successful in the Big 10.
Just a couple weeks ago, the media kept mentioning the chance of the SEC getting two teams in the playoffs, but no one thought the Big 12 would have a shot. If they would have named Baylor the outright champion, I strongly believe the committee would have selected Baylor over Ohio State. Baylor played in a much tougher conference than Ohio State did this year. The committee could have looked passed the Big 12 naming two champions and saw that Baylor beat TCU and deserved it, but choosing Ohio State will surely boost the television ratings. Maybe if Baylor or TCU would have been Oklahoma or Texas, they wouldn’t be on the outside looking in. It’s obvious the TCU and Baylor players aren’t too happy with the Big 12 or the selection committee.
Had TCU and BAYLOR been big NAME/MONEY schools we both would've been in smh….
— Aaron Green (@AaronGreen22) December 7, 2014
Yall want us to score 100 next time?
— Kolby Listenbee ™️ (@List10bee_Swagg) December 7, 2014
If I were to have a vote, I would have selected Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Baylor. TCU is right behind them, but head-to-head match-ups should be a tiebreaker. Ohio State won in an easy conference and had the worst loss. It’s now up to Ohio State to prove that they are worthy of that fourth spot in their semi-final matchup against Alabama.
*Section Photo credit to Ronald Martinez, Getty Images; Featured Photo (above) credit to Kevin Jairaj, USA Today Sports.
