The College Football Playoffs haven’t even started yet and it has already been filled with drama.
The Miami, Notre Dame, Alabama Debate
With Duke winning the ACC at 7-5, the door was open for two G5 teams to make the 12 team playoff. James Madison and Tulane won their respective conferences, and were both ranked higher than Duke, putting them into the playoff. Both teams have had great years and they both are just happy to be here, but with this result, the final two spots came down to deciding between Miami, Notre Dame, and Alabama.
Alabama had just gotten blown out by Georgia in the SEC championship game, and has been playing uninspired football over the last month, but were able to get in as the 9 seed. They were not punished for playing that extra game, and getting blown out.
Now the same can’t be said for BYU, who suffered their second loss of the season, both to Texas Tech. Even with a weaker schedule, they had only lost twice this year to the #4 team in the playoff, and were punished for playing that conference championship game. I’m not saying BYU should have made the playoffs, but them moving down opened the door for Miami to move up.
With Miami moving up and being next to Notre Dame in the rankings, the committee felt that they had to use the H2H matchup from week 1 as the deciding factor.
So without playing a game, Notre Dame fell in the rankings and ultimately, out of the playoffs.
The Real Issue
It’s fair to say not many people have a problem with Miami making the playoff. They won the H2H matchup over Notre Dame, and it’d be a dangerous precedent to set if the committee didn’t factor this in to their rankings.
Now the argument can be made that Alabama should have dropped after their performance against Georgia, like BYU dropped after their conference championship. But for this argument, let’s say that teams shouldn’t be punished for playing an extra game, while other teams sit at home and benefit. So we’ll say Alabama deserved to stay in the CFP (personally, I would have been okay with them dropping out).
Now let’s get to the issue that Notre Dame is now out of the playoffs. This is one of the best teams in the country, and had one of the best odds to win the National Championship. That begs the question, why do we have a system that doesn’t allow the best teams in?
The issue here are is the ACC, and conference realignment. Back in 2019, there were 14 teams in the ACC, allowing more teams to face each other during their conference schedules. Fast forward to this year, and there are 17 teams in the ACC, reducing the likelihood that these teams face off each year.
The result: a 5 team tie for who get’s into the ACC championship game.
I won’t even get into how these tie breakers are decided, it might as well be through a coin flip, but let’s look at it this way. The 5 highest ranked conference champions get an automatic berth into the playoff. Had Miami been in the ACC championship game, all of these issues would have been solved. If Miami is in that game, they either win and get an auto bid, or lose and are out.
It’s simple, and would have made it easier for everyone. Notre Dame, Miami, and Alabama could all be in if this happened. But instead, we get a 7-5 Duke as the ACC champion, and they aren’t even ranked higher than two G5 schools.
So, what now?
Well, the ACC still gets a representative with Miami (the committee said that possibility of the ACC being left out was not a factor, which is hard to believe). And you get one of the best teams in the country out of the playoffs, out of a bowl game, and now their season is over.
With that being said, the CFP will still be great to watch, and a G5 team could maybe get an upset win in the 1st round, but it’s the clear the system needs to be fixed.
