What's Right and Wrong With the College Football Final 4
Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State make up the first ever college football Final 4. I do believe the committee got this right, but it doesn't mean it can't be questioned. To look at this closer, let's look at the 6 teams that were fighting for the 4 spots.
Alabama: Yes, the Tide have the tradition and a roster filled with potential NFL guys. They have a super star head coach, they play in a very strong conference and really could only play themselves out of the top 4. They didn't and deserve to be in the playoff.
Oregon: The Ducks have the likely Heisman winner, an offense that can score on anybody, and play in a Pac 12 that has teams all over the top 25. The Ducks got their revenge on the only team that beat them by crushing Arizona in the Pac 12 title game. The Ducks were the best team in the Pac 12 and now that they are healthier definitely belong in the group.
Florida State: They flirt with disaster every week. They win every week. No other team has a "streak" like the Seminoles. They do have Jameis Winston, also a league that gets knocked, but they do accomplish the number 1 goal in sports and that is win. They are the "champs" and until proven otherwise they most certainly should be in the elite group.
Ohio State: The Buckeyes make it in as the last team. This is really where the debate begins. I personally would have "The" Ohio State in because of what they did all season and what they did on Saturday. The Buckeyes came into Saturday's championship as an underdog and absolutely destroyed Wisconsin. They did that with a 3rd string quarterback that some want to punish them for, but I believe they deserve credit for.
BAYLOR/TCU: 2 teams were going to be left out and here is why I believe these two are going to be watching the Final 4 from home. The Big 12 is a good conference but they were the only one that played by different rules. They not only didn't have a conference championship because of a lack of teams but they refused to crown a champion which didn't solve the Baylor or TCU debate. That forced the committee to pick one. They seemed to lean towards TCU and the rest of the world lost their mind over the "head to head" situation in which Baylor beat TCU. So instead of getting tied up in that, boom, move Ohio State in, certainly a qualified team, and leave 2 qualified teams out. My next question is though, if the 2 Big 12 teams were Oklahoma and Texas, would they have really been left out?
The committee: I like a lot of things that they have done. I know they are watching the games. This isn't on the computers, a coaches poll, or some media that may not watch every game. This group I think really tried to do the right thing. What opens them up to speculation is having the weekly rankings made public. Last week the committee had their "final 4" and all teams in the top 6 won, yet we have new rankings this week. So were they wrong last week? I like the final group, but not how we got there. Do we need to see the results every week? We would still speculate the final group every week, but by putting the 4 out there and then changing it, you can see why there are people upset. The committee knocked down Florida State consistently for winning close games. They did the same on Saturday yet moved up one spot. TCU should be furious. They were 3rd, win by 52, and drop 3 spots. Again, I wouldn't have them in but did TCU do wrong? Would they have been better off by not playing? Baylor had an incredibly weak non-conference schedule but they did beat TCU in head to head. The Big 12 will say as a conference we had 2 of the top 6 teams but none of the top 4? Each league does things differently. What we do need is some unification between conferences. Some play 8 conference games, some play 9. Some choose to play weak non-conference schedules, others schedule big dogs. Most have conference champions while some don't. Keep in mind the independents, like Notre Dame, how would they have been evaluated if they were in the mix all the way to the end?
So in the end, it wasn't perfect. I love that we have a final 4. What would it look like in the old system? Probably Alabama vs. Florida State with Oregon, TCU, Baylor and Ohio State all upset. I think this will get us closer to an 8 team playoff but in the end as a fan of the great game of college football, I am glad that we now have this system. Time to tweak it just a bit or I will just keep complaining yet still watch the sport that I love.
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