College Playoff Power Rankings

By Will Derryberry

Every year after the College Football season, 13 well-respected sports analysts and reporters come together and make up the “committee” that decides which four teams deserve to make the playoffs. The committee considers several things when picking the rankings. They include conference championships, strength of schedule, head-to-head results against common opponents, head-to-head matchups, player availability, and much more. 

This year, there were 3 teams selected that were obvious and were no shock to fans, these teams being the undefeated BIG 10 champion Michigan Wolverines, the undefeated PAC-12 champion Washington Huskies, and the one-loss BIG 12 champion Texas Longhorns. 

Many believed the fourth team selected would be the Florida State Seminoles, the undefeated ACC champion, or the Georgia Bulldogs, who after a 29-game win streak and two straight National Championships narrowly fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide, a one-loss team led by all-time-great coach Nick Saban. But after much conversation and dispute, the committee ultimately selected the SEC champion : the Crimson Tide.

Many college football fans were outraged because of this decision. After all, why wouldn’t an undefeated team and champion of a Power 5 conference make the playoffs? On paper, this seems like a poor and unthoughtful decision; but if you take into account the guidelines that the committee uses to choose which four teams make the cut, FSU does NOT meet the criteria. 

As previously mentioned, the selection committee’s task is to select the best teams, not the most deserving teams. When determining the best team, the committee uses strength of schedule to compare different teams and the results aren’t even close. The committee has Florida State’s strength of schedule 55th in the nation, while Alabama’s is 6th. In this department, Alabama clearly has the edge over Florida State. Alabama also has more ranked wins (4) than Florida State (2). The SEC is consistently the best conference in College Football and having to play an SEC team almost every game is much more difficult than facing off against ACC teams.

Another factor taken into consideration is availability of players. Florida State had a great start to their season led by their Heismen-Hopeful quarterback and future NFL Draft first round pick, Jordan Travis. Unfortunately, in a November 18 matchup against North Alabama, Travis went down with a gruesome ankle injury and had to be carted off the field. But for the Seminoles, it’s not the end of the world, right? Backup quarterback Tate Roddenmaker was a high-valued recruit and was a beast in high school, so surely he can lead FSU to a successful rest of the season, right? 

Well, when Florida State played University of Florida in a highly anticipated in-state rivalry showdown, Roddenmaker went down with a concussion late in the game and third string quarterback Brock Glenn escaped with an ugly win. 

In the history of the 4-team college football playoff, the SEC champion has always been included and this year proves to be no different. The SEC as a conference is head and shoulders above everyone else, and this is proven year after year. Even the teams at the bottom of the SEC rankings like Arkansas or Mississippi State would dominate not just the ACC, but any other conference.

Sure, fans of Florida State and college football as a whole have the right to be mad about the decision the committee made, but they need to stop being delusional and realize that there’s just no way Florida State, the champion of a conference full of teams that give up on football and start awaiting basketball season after only week 5 will be able to contend against top-ranked Michigan when they could barely beat a Louisville team who fell to unranked Kentucky and Pittsburgh. Alabama will contend against Michigan and they might even pull off a win and prove that the committee made the right decision.

If FSU were to play Michigan, it would be TCU vs. Georgia in the 2022 national championship all over again with the score ending in 65-7 and fans realizing that maybe TCU didn’t deserve to be in the College Football Playoff, despite a successful season against second-rate teams that can make any team look good. Brock Glenn is not a good quarterback, and Michigan’s defense would be all over him. Florida State might even get blown out by Georgia in their bowl game and this will prove that they don’t belong in the College Football Playoffs.