Alabama Football: Selection Committee backed into corner or done deal
By Ronald Evans
Before diving deeper into Tuesday night’s CFB Playoff Rankings, let me say Alabama Football not getting a bump after the Iron Bowl is understandable. I get it. The Crimson Tide needed a miracle play to beat a six-win team.
My complaint about the committee’s ranking of Alabama Football goes back to previous weeks. Alabama has beaten too many ranked teams to have been stuck at No. 8 for every ranking in this Playoff cycle.
One general explanation that Chair, Boo Corrigan gave Tuesday night indicated the Selection Committee does not, as I have expected for weeks, much care about Strength of Schedule. Apparently it values ‘eye tests’ more than any data point.
Maybe that is the problem. Maybe this iteration of the Selection Committee is not skilled at making college football ‘eye test’ decisions. Texas fans certainly doubt the committee’s ability to accurately rate teams.
Alabama Football Fan Response
Many Crimson Tide fans firmly believe Alabama is better than Oregon, FSU and probably better than Ohio State and Washington. Count me as one of them. Maybe we are wrong, but we have as good of a chance of being right as the Selection Committee.
Why can we make that claim? Just look at the history of Playoff games and the teams that were not legitimate championship contenders.
There have been 18 Semi-Final games and 12 of them have had one-sided results. Not all the National Championship Games have been competitive either. The most glaring is last season. After TCU beat Michigan 51-45, Georgia destroyed the Horned Frogs in the Championship Game, 65-7. Last season, when Alabama Football finished No. 5 in the rankings, Nick Saban calmly but consistently stated he was convinced Alabama was one of the four best teams. It is possible that last year, Alabama was the second-best team.
To be fair the Selection Committee has a most difficult task. This year’s group, as in past years is made up of capable individuals dedicated to performing their job as best as is humanly possible. The carefully designed evaluation process effectively protects against unintentional bias.
Maybe what is asked of them is just too difficult. On Tuesday night, when the core goal of selecting the best teams was repeated, I shook my head in response. That should be the goal and maybe to an extent it still is, but how to do it has not come close to being perfected.
As far as Alabama, it appears the committee may have already decided, before Saturday’s games that the Crimson Tide, even with a win over Georgia, cannot possibly spring into the final four. If so, then the Selection Committee has backed itself into a corner. If Alabama beats the best team, then logically Alabama, as a one-loss SEC Champion is one of the top four teams.
With that result on Saturday, the committee cannot justify it has picked the four best teams, unless two of them are Alabama and Georgia. If Michigan, FSU and Texas also win, does the committee have the courage to move the Crimson Tide from No. 8 to No. 4 or higher? I am not confident that they do.
Tuesday night’s complete Top 25 rankings can be seen here.
