Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad I’m not a Florida State fan.
In today’s SI:AM:
🐘 The committee’s controversial decision
A fitting end to the four-team Playoff era
Sports Illustrated’s editorial standards prevent me from saying exactly what the College Football Playoff committee did to Florida State, but it begins with an F.
The Seminoles became the first undefeated power conference champion to be left out of the Playoff in its 10-year history yesterday when the committee selected Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama (in that order) as the four semifinalists.
I wrote on Friday about the possibility of FSU being left out, but I didn’t think it would actually happen. It seemed too controversial of a choice to keep an undefeated ACC champ out of the Playoff, although in retrospect I was naive to think that the inevitable public backlash to such a move would be able to sway the committee. It’s not like the committee can be held accountable in any meaningful way. Its members don’t have to worry about being reelected by the fans, and a revolt from one conference won’t result in significant consequences because there are four conferences that are thrilled with the committee’s decision.
The committee’s rationale for leaving the Seminoles out is simple. Without injured quarterback Jordan Travis in its last two games, FSU has not seemed as formidable as it was earlier in the season. It ground out ugly wins over Florida and Louisville, averaging just 221.5 total yards of offense per game. Against the Cardinals in the ACC title game, the Seminoles were down to third-string QB Brock Glenn as Travis’s backup Tate Rodemaker recovered from a concussion.
“In the eyes of the committee, Florida State is a different team without Jordan Travis,” committee chair Boo Corrigan explained. “One of the things we do consider is player availability. Our job is to rank the best teams, and in the final decision looking at it was Alabama at four and Florida State at five.”
This is about the committee forecasting what it believes FSU will play like in January. And, that’s distressing. Yes, Travis is a dynamic player whose absence undeniably alters the team’s outlook. But who is the committee to say that Florida State is incapable of winning a national championship without him? Certainly no college football team has ever won a title with subpar quarterback play. Is it outrageous to think that the Seminoles’ excellent defense, which ranks 11th nationally in yards allowed per play, can lead them to two more victories over elite opponents? We’ll never know.
The biggest winner from the committee’s snub was Alabama and the SEC. The Tide’s upset victory over Georgia in the conference title game appeared as though it would knock the SEC out of the Playoff for the first time. If the committee was going to choose a lone one-loss conference champ, it would have to be Texas, which beat Alabama convincingly in Tuscaloosa in September. There was an argument to be made—much like the argument the committee made about Florida State—that Alabama is a different team than it was back then because of its quarterback play. But the committee avoided having to have that discussion by pushing the Seminoles aside and choosing two one-loss champions.
The committee’s controversial exclusion of Florida State is a fitting end for the four-team Playoff era as the field expands to 12 teams next season. A four-team tournament was always a strange choice in a sport with five major conferences, and the committee was fortunate to have avoided having to make a decision this difficult until the final year of the format. Arguments about the committee’s No. 12 and No. 13 teams next season won’t carry this amount of weight.
The best of Sports Illustrated
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- Pat Forde believes that Florida State deserved a spot in the Playoff, but also that the school and its conference deserve some blame for the Seminoles being held out.
- On the other hand, Michael Rosenberg makes a convincing case that the decision to include Alabama was the right one.
- Forde and Richard Johnson have early guides to both CFP semifinal games. Here’s what they have to say about Michigan vs. Alabama and Washington vs. Texas.
- Both the ACC commissioner and Florida State coach Mike Norvell issued scathing statements blasting the CFP committee.
- Here’s the full schedule for every college football bowl game this year.
- The 49ers made a serious statement with their convincing win over the Eagles in Philadelphia yesterday. Gilberto Manzano has more on San Francisco’s impressive performance and what it means for the NFC.
- After the Chargers’ hideous 6–0 win over the Patriots yesterday, Conor Orr writes that the NFL product just isn’t as good this year.
- Tom Verducci has a list of 10 MLB free agents who could be real bargains.
- The Braves acquired former top prospect Jarred Kelenic in a trade with the Mariners.
The top five...
… things I saw this weekend:
5. Trevor Moore’s slick spin move to get open for a goal.
4. The Colts’ trick play for a big gain.
3. Myles Garrett’s helmet getting stuck in an opponent’s facemask.
2. The Dolphins’ roller-coaster celebration.
1. North Dakota State’s blocked extra point in overtime to advance in the FCS playoffs.
SIQ
Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy on this day in 1988 but could not attend the ceremony because Oklahoma State was playing a game against Texas Tech in what foreign city?
- London
- Tokyo
- Toronto
- Mexico City
Friday’s SIQ: Which school hired the first Black head football coach in SEC history on Dec. 1, 2003?
- Vanderbilt
- Mississippi State
- Ole Miss
- Kentucky
Answer: Mississippi State. It was Sylvester Croom, a longtime NFL assistant who had played under Bear Bryant at Alabama.
Croom inherited a program that had gone 8–27 in the previous three seasons and won just three conference games. With that in mind, his underwhelming 21–38 record in five seasons doesn’t seem that bad. His best season was his fourth, in 2007, when the Bulldogs went 8–5, including back-to-back wins over ranked opponents Kentucky and Alabama—with a victory over UCF in the Liberty Bowl.
Croom was the first of five Black SEC football coaches (followed by Joker Phillips at Kentucky, Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M, and James Franklin and Derek Mason at Vanderbilt), but today the league is the only Power 5 conference without a minority head coach.
For more on Croom and his path from growing up in segregated Alabama to leading one of the biggest football programs in the Deep South, check out this 2004 SI story by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg.
