The College Football Playoffs were surrounded by controversy regarding the selection of the four teams that were included. The Universities of Michigan, Washington, Texas at Austin and Alabama were all seeded in the four team playoffs while the University of Georgia and Florida State University narrowly missed out on the opportunity to display their teams’ talents in the final stage of the season’s competition.
Florida State University celebrated an undefeated season and earned the title of Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champions despite losing their star quarterback Jordan Travis. This led to the expectation that Florida State would make the four team playoff bracket. However, this was not the case, and the college football world erupted with protests about the lack of representation of the ACC in the College Football Playoffs and the alleged bias that the committee has for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) by including Alabama.
“FSU just had an easier schedule while other college football teams had more competition,” senior Diya Patel said. “I do give credit to the Seminoles since they’ve been showing a lot of effort on the field. I think it was a tough decision by the committee but the correct decision.”
This sentiment was reflected in the Orange Bowl’s final score of 63-3 with the Georgia Bulldogs decimating the Seminoles. This final score hushed a large amount of the outrage regarding FSU’s exclusion from the playoffs, but many Georgia fans were left bitter regarding the committee’s decision.
“I think it was unfair for UGA to be left out of the playoffs,” senior and UGA fan Davis Moody argued. “They were ranked first for the entire season and suffered just one loss to a very talented Alabama team.”
Despite all of the fans that took issue with the committee choosing the four teams that they did, the college football playoffs have resulted in an entertaining spectacle. The commission’s responsibility is to create the most deserving and entertaining combination of teams to compete for the title of National Champions, and opinions on this subject matter have varied greatly.
The first matchup on New Year’s Day was the No.4 ranked Alabama against the #1 ranked Michigan, which resulted in a 27-20 final score in Michigan’s favor. This game resulted in the first time an SEC team was not included in the College Football Championship game since 2014, which was the last year before the playoff structure of college football changed from national polling to a commissioned event.
In the same night, #3 ranked Texas suffered a heartbreaking loss to the #2 ranked Washington. The Washington Huskies had not made the College Football Playoffs since its second year of formation in 2016, in which they were defeated 24-7 by Alabama.
After this season, the College Football Playoff bracket will be expanded from 4 to 12 teams, which will eliminate a large amount of conflict that stems from the lack of space for all regions to be represented for the ultimate title.
The College Football Championship took place on Monday, January 8, and Washington came up short to Michigan with a final score of 34-13. The game wrapped up an extremely eventful and controversial season of college football that left many fans shocked, angry, and even left some happy with the representation of different teams in the College Football Championship.
