The debate surrounding the University of Alabama's participation in the College Football Playoff has sparked much heated debate, including among ESPN personalities.
on sunday College Football Playoff Selection Show, ESPN's Booger McFarland says that if the 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee chooses the University of Alabama over SMU as the No. 12 seed, they will be choosing “brand” over substance. He pointed out that.
Alabama ended the season as a three-loss team with two losses to unranked opponents. SMU only lost two games, one against a stout BYU team and the other against Clemson in the ACC Conference Championship.
Ultimately, the committee voted to award the final at-large slot to SMU.
But Herbstreit didn't appreciate McFarland's characterization of the committee's selection process as one of brand and substance.
“All of a sudden, I don't understand Mr. Booger's comments about brands last night. I think that's easily resolved on the internet and social media,” Herbstreit said. “For me, it's very clear this is not going to be easy. No matter what the committee does, they're going to lose. If you look at SMU, they made it to the conference championship game, but in the final two They lost by a field goal in the second and didn't beat anyone in the top 25, and even though they had the strength of schedule, and they were a 3-touchdown favorite to win. We had a very disappointing and almost embarrassing loss at the end of the year.
“So, there's really no right answer. Normally, I'd take Coach Saban's word for it. Alabama is 3 against a team currently in the top 25. We won, and normally that would be important. But that loss, to me, was calling the game in Norman, and Oklahoma just lost that game. And I think that could potentially be a difficult anchor for them to overcome, as the committee commended SMU for the loss to Norman later this year. I wouldn't be surprised either.
Mr McFarland responded by insisting that his point was to bring “lightness” to the discussion.
“Yeah, what you mean, Kirk,[I'm]just bringing a little bit of levity to the situation. But you're right. It was probably a little bit of a low-hanging fruit. . . . But at the end of the day, we're having a little fun here,” McFarland said. “I disagree a little with you who talk about the strength of Alabama's record. They have three losses, one on the road at Norman by 21 points. The other was against Vanderbilt. So I heard you and Coach (Saban) talking about who won. But at some point, it's hard to put those losses out of your head.
“Okay; schedules aren't balanced and teams are playing different schedules. But at some point, we're going to look at who these teams are going to beat based on who's lined up on the schedule.” I'm going to lean a little bit towards SMU because I have to.”
The College Football Playoff chairman then appeared on the ESPN broadcast and explained the committee's decision-making process.
“We looked at the number of wins Alabama had against ranked opponents,” Manuel said. “When we looked at SMU's schedule, they were undefeated in the conference. Their losses were to ranked teams. But we also noted that Alabama lost to unranked teams. And that's been quite the debate. We value strength of schedule, so Alabama is the only team with three losses. It ranks higher than the losing team. That's something we talked about quite a bit. But you put it all together, SMU's play in that game, losing on a last-second field goal, Clemson University. It was a great win, a great game. In this particular case, it felt like SMU was still a nod above Alabama. That's not to discount the strength of Alabama's schedule. We’re just looking at the whole thing.”
The national championship will be held on January 20th at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
