The 2017 College Football Playoff field is out. The top three seeds were unsurprisingly Clemson, Oklahoma, and Georgia. In the biggest drama of Selection Sunday, Alabama made the field as the final seed over No. 5 Ohio State. That’s despite the Tide not winning the SEC West, and Ohio State taking the Big Ten championship Saturday.
Why Alabama made the Playoff over Ohio State, explained by the selection committee chair
Ohio State shouldn’t have lost by 31 to Iowa, basically.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Why did Alabama make the Playoff over Ohio State?
Let’s hear from Kirby Hocutt, the chair of the Playoff selection committee.
“The selection committee just favored Alabama’s full body of work over that of Ohio State. And it was consistent,” Hocutt told ESPN’s Rece Davis just after the reveal.
The committee had a problem with Ohio State losing two games, compared to the one game Bama lost. Still, no two-loss team has made the Playoff in four years.
A two-score loss to Oklahoma wasn’t good.
“More damaging was the 31-point loss to unranked Iowa,” Hocutt said.
The Buckeyes’ loss in Iowa City in November would’ve been the most lopsided ever taken by a Playoff team, by far. The committee wasn’t willing to overlook that, though Hocutt praised the Buckeyes for beating Wisconsin and winning the Big Ten.
“It was impressive, but it wasn’t enough for the selection committee to place them over Alabama,” Hocutt said. “The selection committee has continued to be impressed with Alabama’s performance on the field.”
The Playoff’s selection protocol explicitly mentions conference titles as a criterion for inclusion. But that’s not the be-all or the end-all. The committee showed that in choosing Ohio State last year over Big Ten winner Penn State and has now reaffirmed it.
“Conference championships are important,” Hocutt said later. But he added, “We have the flexibility and discretion to put non-champions in the top four if they’re one of the very best.” In placing Alabama above Ohio State, the committee used that discretion.
More on Bama’s inclusion over Ohio State:
Bama should’ve won its division. Simple as that. That’s the expectation we had for Wisconsin, another team that ended up facing a schedule without a bunch of ranked teams on it, so fair is fair.
Ohio State should’ve lost one game, and it probably shouldn’t have made it the 31-pointer against a 7-5 team. Just delete that one from the records, and you’re golden.
Somehow, the committee’s got to agree to enshrine one of these deeply flawed résumés.
Bama’s in for the fourth time in four years.
See More:
