College Football pick-six: Oklahoma was the political choice, Kirby wasn't that dumb, and the 'flex' playoff system is a million-dollar idea
Cliched storylines of the week
Here are three counterintuitive pushbacks to the prevailing wisdom/"Arguments" of a contentious College Football Playoff selection weekend, each guaranteed to make your blood boil.
Part I
Georgia was the “best” No. 4 Playoff team, UCF was the “most deserving” and Oklahoma split the difference politically. The fundamental argument over the very nature of the Playoff itself — do we choose the four best teams or the four most deserving teams —was on full display in the debate over the No. 4 seed in the bracket. What most of us would agree on is that Georgia was likely the “best” team, if you were to choose among Ohio State, Oklahoma, Georgia and UCF. And it seems pretty clear to me that if you wanted to pick the “most deserving” team, it would be the one among those teams that didn’t lose a game all season: UCF.
So what, exactly, was Oklahoma, other than the safe political choice for a committee that — for all its pretext of independence — is still a slave to the overarching system dominated by five power conferences? For now, it matters that Oklahoma won its conference, and it matters less that Georgia nearly won its conference over a far better team or that UCF overcame an injury to its best player to win its conference and hasn’t lost a football game since 2016.
And that, I imagine, is the way it will remain until either the Playoff is expanded or until the system is once again reformed.
Part II
Kirby Smart’s fake punt wasn’t that terrible of an idea. Smart said afterward that he spotted a weakness in Alabama's punt coverage and that the play might have worked if Georgia had gotten the snap off faster. Now, I realize that it was fourth-and-11, and I realize that Smart’s defense — which had played brilliantly most of the day — was facing a backup quarterback in Jalen Hurts. But this was no ordinary backup quarterback, and this was no ordinary team. This was Alabama, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years about beating Alabama, it’s that you need to embrace risk and hope you get lucky. Smart did not get lucky, but I really don’t think you can fault him for taking a risk.
Part III
The biggest hero of the weekend was the other backup quarterback. I realize the temptation is to lionize Jalen Hurts for the sheer irony of the situation he stepped into on Saturday, having been benched in favor of another quarterback only to find himself coming off the bench to relieve that quarterback and win the SEC Championship for Alabama. But the thing is we know Jalen Hurts is good; he’s just, you know, not otherworldly Tua Tagovailoa good.
So to me it was more remarkable that UCF backup quarterback Darriel Mack Jr., subbing for the injured McKenzie Milton, managed to lead his team back from a 38-21 halftime deficit to defeat Memphis in the AAC Championship Game. As I flipped back and forth between games, that was the comeback I didn’t see coming.
The post-Playoff selection Playoff watch of the week
Tier 1: Alabama. The good news is that Georgia made it feel like the Crimson Tide are potentially vulnerable, particularly if they face Clemson in the National Championship Game. That may be an illusory notion, but I’m going to spend the next month or so clinging to it.
Tier 2: Clemson. The Tigers’ blowout of Pitt in the ACC Championship Game was not entirely unexpected. And you may crow all you want about the overarching weakness of that conference this year. But there’s something to be said for the fact that this is the first season a Dabo Swinney team has gone undefeated heading into the postseason— and that it did it in the midst of its own midseason quarterback controversy.
Tier 3: Notre Dame. This is the biggest wild card in this four-team field. I really do believe that this is a far better Notre Dame team than the false front Brian Kelly put up against Alabama in 2012, but I’m not convinced it's good enough to compete with Clemson or Alabama. Maybe it would surprise you if the Irish were good enough; it wouldn’t surprise me.
Tier 4: Oklahoma. Listen, man — I love Kyler Murray, and if he chooses to pull a Bo Jackson and play both football and baseball, I’ll love him even more. And it’s possible that, as the most radically athletic quarterback in the country, he’s the only type of passer who could put up a challenge to Alabama in the way Johnny Manziel once did. But it still feels like a long shot to me.
Playoff expansion tier (see below): Georgia, UCF.
The week in half-baked suggestions
I’m pretty sure I wrote down this idea years ago, but I’m pretty sure it got swallowed up by the internet’s fickle maw, so here it is again: a flex playoff system in which the committee would be able to choose its poison based on the number of playoff-worthy teams it thought existed in a given year. If it’s four teams, make it a four-team playoff; if it’s six teams, give us two play-in games; if it’s eight teams, give us a whole extra weekend. (Hell, if it’s five, just schedule a single elimination game in early December to get us down to four.)
There are, of course, logistical challenges inherent to this idea, and there are also moneyed interests who would scoff at the uncertainty. But when I discover a way to beam myself to a parallel dimension where politics and cash are not a factor, I’m going to make millions off it.
Off-topic recommendations of the week: the Army-Navy edition
As someone who never could have been accepted to either institution for myriad reasons, I found David Lipsky’s book "Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point" a fascinating look behind the scenes. Or if you’re in the mood for something more cynical, check out the movie version of M*A*S*H."
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