Reflecting on Tuesday night's Playoff rankings leads me to a couple of troubling concerns. Alabama football fans do not need to overreact to the Crimson Tide's No. 4 slot. The Crimson Tide has a loss against a not very good football team. It is not an insignificant blemish.
My concern is general, and not new. It is that too much is demanded of each cycle's Selection Committee. They are expected to be at least close to perfect, in an exercise impossible to perfect. It can be argued that a better system is needed to choose Playoff teams. No one knows the solution.
The Selection Committee can be blamed for some lack of transparency. The new 'Record Strength' metric is a mystery, both in exactly how it works and how heavily it influences ranking decisions.
I have never questioned the determination of Selection Committees to execute their task to the best of their abilities. Ultimately, they must make judgments. No accumulation of human judgments is ever without flaw.
Making the process worse is that 'most deserving' has practically replaced the original goal of selecting the 'best' teams.
Fans of several teams have reasons to be dissatisfied with the committee's work so far. Ole Miss, Miami, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt fans probably have the most legit complaints.
Should Alabama Football fans be concerned?
Potentially, there is another problem, articulated by Roll 'Bama Roll's Erik Evans (no relation). Erik is convinced that "the fix is so clearly in." Evans boldly concludes the committee "is trying to avoid its apocalypse of actually putting half a dozen quality SEC teams in, and is angling for five — perhaps even fewer."
I offer no endorsement of Evans' claim. In fact, I find some of the proof he offers to be a stretch. But on one point I agree, "when you have no oversight, and everyone involved can act in secrecy," goals can become misaligned. I disagree with Evans calling the Playoff entity a cartel. It is a money-making entity that may worry that revenue generation could be threatened by any appearance of favoritism to one conference.
As I previously wrote, I share Evans' opinion that there is no way the Playoff Selection Committee will allow six SEC football teams in the field.