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Despite Georgia’s 27-24 loss against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, head coach Kirby Smart still believes his Bulldogs deserve a berth in the College Football Playoff.
“[College Football Playoff selection committee executive director] Bill Hancock said, ‘It’s not the most deserving,’ He said, simply, ‘It’s the best four teams,'” he told reporters. “So you’re gonna tell me somebody sitting in that committee room and doesn’t think that this Georgia team is one of the four best teams, I don’t know if they’re in the right profession.”
Andy Staples @Andy_Staples
Kirby Smart makes his case to the playoff selection committee. pic.twitter.com/fTZPflb9mi
“It’s a really good football team,” he added of his Bulldogs. “A really talented football team. A really balanced football team. They have to make that decision, but it’s the best four teams, and that’s critical.”
Smart’s not wrong about what Hancock said.
“It is best,” he told reporters Tuesday when asked if the committee makes its selections based on the most deserving teams or the best teams. “Most deserving is not anything in the committee’s lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that’s what they do. Just keep that word in mind: Best teams.”
Dan Wolken @DanWolken
Kirby’s take on why Georgia should be in (he has no shot imo) pic.twitter.com/Un7TXZsdSK
How exactly, however, does the committee determine best when teams play dramatically different schedules and most don’t have head-to-head matchups against each other?
Alabama beat Georgia head-to-head and won its conference in the process. By that logic, surely Alabama would be considered better than Georgia.
But Alabama lost head-to-head, at home, against one-loss Texas, which itself won its conference. So Texas should be in ahead of Alabama, and by proxy, ahead of Georgia too.
Right?
Kevin Negandhi @KevinNegandhi
If head to head matters between Alabama over Georgia at a neutral site, then head to head has to matter w Texas over Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Matthew Berry @MatthewBerryTMR
I don’t know how you don’t have the SEC Champion in the playoff.
You want Texas in I got no issue with that. But the champion of the FREAKING SEC had damn well better be in.
Honestly Georgia should be in too.
Washington won the Pac-12 and went undefeated in the process. Surely they’ll be in. What happens if Michigan and Florida State each go undefeated and win their prospective conferences? Are they automatically in too?
(Michigan would be, given their quality wins in the Big Ten. Florida State, without star quarterback Jordan Travis, would really put Hanock’s “best teams” logic to the test, since its harder to claim a Travis-less Seminoles team is better than any of the one-loss teams in the running.)
Joe Schad @schadjoe
Is a one-loss Georgia team more outstanding at present than undefeated FSU squad that squeaks by without their QB tonight?
Dane Brugler @dpbrugler
The CFP Committee will not be upset if Louisville wins. Makes their job pretty easy (Michigan, Washington, Texas, Alabama).
If FSU wins, then we have some chaos. Would they leave the SEC out? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Who gets left out? Only four teams make it. And do conference titles even matter if a non-conference winner like Georgia gets in over one or more deserving conference winners?
The point is that it’s very hard to justify Georgia getting into the Playoff unless both Michigan and Florida State lose on Saturday night. It’s not easy to win a conference title. It should count for something, at least when comparing undefeated or one-loss teams.
There’s no way to know for sure whether Georgia is “better” than Texas or Florida State without a head-to-head matchup on the field. But we know Texas was good enough to win their conference title, and perhaps the Seminoles will be too. Hancock can say it’s about the best teams, not the most deserving, but the only way to determine “best” is by evaluating a team’s resumé.
Wins over Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee are nothing to sneeze at when it comes to evaluating Georgia’s achievements this year. But a lack of a conference title has the two-time defending national champions likely on the outside looking in when it comes to the CFP.
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