by Nicholas Greco
The College Football playoffs are underway! First off, the teams that made the playoffs in order are: Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tulane, JMU. The first two teams left out were Notre Dame and BYU, and there was plenty of outrage about Notre Dame being left out of the playoffs.
The top four seeds Georgia, Texas Tech, Indiana and Ohio State all received a bye week and will play on New Year’s Day. Based on winning their conference championship game except Ohio State. First round match ups are: Oregon vs JMU, Ole Miss vs Tulane, Alabama vs Oklahoma, Texas A&M vs Miami. Arguably, the biggest match up of the first round is Alabama vs Oklahoma as this is the second time these teams are meeting this season. The Sooners won over the Tide 23-21. However the Tide is still the favorite to win the game. **Update: Alabama was victorious in the first round matchup on 12/20**.
The selection committee claims they don’t consider conference championship games in their decision making but it sure seems like they do. Alabama lost to Georgia in their conference fchampionship giving the three losses on the season, but since the committee doesn’t penalize a team for playing an extra game, Georgia made the playoffs. On the other hand, BYU (sitting at 11-2) lost to Texas Tech in the regular season and conference championship game. Texas Tech dominated them in both games. Even though BYU was 11-1 going into the conference championship game, it seems like the committee is penalizing them for losing badly to Texas Tech both times. In addition, many critics say Notre Dame (who was 10-2 with losses to Texas A&M and Miami) got snubbed from the playoffs. The Irish were ranked above 10-2 Miami who lost to Louisville and SMU (two unranked teams) all season until the playoff selection where the committee flipped them. This caused outrage within the Notre Dame community.
The college football playoffs selections also caused a lot of outrage because Notre Dame was left out. Even with Notre Dame and BYU being left out for the likes of Miami and Alabama, the field is still strong. The committee’s poor explanation of how they consider conference championship games caused a lot of confusion. But this drama and confusion had only built up the suspense for a huge and exciting playoff to come. Can Indiana continue their run? Will Ohio state two peat? So many exciting questions that will finally begin to be answered in the next few weeks.