A July 6 al.com article detailed television commentator Tim Brando's contention that three "blue blood" programs -- Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson -- benefit from favoritism by the college football playoff selection committee. He said it is "bad for the game."
Excerpts:
"...Brando cited weak 2018 non-conference schedules for SEC powers Alabama and Georgia. He also noted that with perennial opponent Tennessee currently struggling as a program, Alabama's SEC crossover games were not exactly worthy tests either.
"Brando said one possible fix would be to require all Power 5 conferences to play the same number of conference games. Currently, the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 play nine conference games each year, while the SEC and ACC play only eight.
"But the biggest issue, he said, was the College Football Playoff selection committee's habit of giving the benefit of the doubt to so-called 'blue blood' programs after they lose. As an example, he cited Alabama falling only to No. 5 overall (from No. 1) after losing by 12 points in its regular-season finale at Auburn last year.
"'If you have a body of work over a long time, and a tremendous history, you're considered one of the blue bloods of the game, you're not going to fall as precipitously as others when you lose a game,' Brando said. 'Check the numbers on, how many spots did Alabama fall? I will guarantee you won't find them falling more than four spots in any given situation when they've lost a game, whether it was the two losses to Ole Miss they've had in recent years or the loss to Auburn (in 2017). The committee knew that by having them in the fifth position, that somebody had to lose the Georgia-Auburn game in the SEC championship, so Alabama was poised to be right in that spot.
"'Other teams when they are undefeated and lose a game, they drop seven, eight, five spots, sometimes even out of the Top 10 altogether. That's what I mean by 'privileged' and by the way, they're not the only privileged team. Ohio State's another one, I believe Clemson's another one. Clemson lost Syracuse, for God's sake. They were a bad team, and (Clemson) still got in. So, it's not just Alabama.'"
The toothless hordes are losing their minds over Brando's nerve in pointing out the obvious.
Last week I caught a 1988 Brent Musberger comment during a game about the messy favoritism reflected in the national championship scenario back then. His idea? Take conference champions from around the nation and have an eight-team playoff.
In hindsight it was funny. Not only do we still lack something as equitable as that but thanks to conference realignments and other factors what we have now is a mysterious body who uses whatever criteria they rationalize to pick four favorites to play for the championship.
It's no less a mess now than it was three decades ago.
Excerpts:
"...Brando cited weak 2018 non-conference schedules for SEC powers Alabama and Georgia. He also noted that with perennial opponent Tennessee currently struggling as a program, Alabama's SEC crossover games were not exactly worthy tests either.
"Brando said one possible fix would be to require all Power 5 conferences to play the same number of conference games. Currently, the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 play nine conference games each year, while the SEC and ACC play only eight.
"But the biggest issue, he said, was the College Football Playoff selection committee's habit of giving the benefit of the doubt to so-called 'blue blood' programs after they lose. As an example, he cited Alabama falling only to No. 5 overall (from No. 1) after losing by 12 points in its regular-season finale at Auburn last year.
"'If you have a body of work over a long time, and a tremendous history, you're considered one of the blue bloods of the game, you're not going to fall as precipitously as others when you lose a game,' Brando said. 'Check the numbers on, how many spots did Alabama fall? I will guarantee you won't find them falling more than four spots in any given situation when they've lost a game, whether it was the two losses to Ole Miss they've had in recent years or the loss to Auburn (in 2017). The committee knew that by having them in the fifth position, that somebody had to lose the Georgia-Auburn game in the SEC championship, so Alabama was poised to be right in that spot.
"'Other teams when they are undefeated and lose a game, they drop seven, eight, five spots, sometimes even out of the Top 10 altogether. That's what I mean by 'privileged' and by the way, they're not the only privileged team. Ohio State's another one, I believe Clemson's another one. Clemson lost Syracuse, for God's sake. They were a bad team, and (Clemson) still got in. So, it's not just Alabama.'"
The toothless hordes are losing their minds over Brando's nerve in pointing out the obvious.
Last week I caught a 1988 Brent Musberger comment during a game about the messy favoritism reflected in the national championship scenario back then. His idea? Take conference champions from around the nation and have an eight-team playoff.
In hindsight it was funny. Not only do we still lack something as equitable as that but thanks to conference realignments and other factors what we have now is a mysterious body who uses whatever criteria they rationalize to pick four favorites to play for the championship.
It's no less a mess now than it was three decades ago.
