I think this has to be it. There's no way to justify putting an SEC team in over any of these teams this year. Undefeated conference champs are all locks, regardless of how you feel about strength of conferences, you just can't leave out a P5 team that literally hasn't lost unless there's 5 of them. So, last spot is between Texas, Bama, Georgia, Ohio State.
All have fairly similar resumes, except one of them is a conference champion, and beat another one head to head. That puts them over the top.
You could argue (correctly) they also have the worst loss of the 4, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives, and that was in a rivalry game where things are always a little weird. And it's not like Oklahoma is outright bad. Plus it took some last second heroics. While it's the worst loss of those 4, it's not a bad loss. So I think you have to put in the conference champion.
So, sorry SEC fans, it's your turn to learn how it feels to have a team that's probably good enough to win left out of the playoffs. That's how it goes.
Edit: welp, I was wrong. FSU got screwed. That's disappointing. Can't wait for a real playoff.
Yes they did. And that's one criterion they can use amongst many. It's generally used for tiebreakers.
I also think they'll consider Alabama the better team right now, without the need for a tiebreaker. I also think they'll use FSU on purpose to create separation so they can avoid the tie-breaker discussion.
Edit: Can we leave downvoting for disagreeing on the other site? If you don't like conversation, what are you even doing here?
Can we leave downvoting for disagreeing on the other site? If you don't like conversation, what are you even doing here?
I'm with you there. Disappointing to see them being used by some folks for disagreement. (FWIW, I do think you have a bad take in this argument, but it doesn't merit downvotes)
But yeah, the criteria changes constantly. Who would win, who has the best win, head to head, worst loss, conference championship, undefeated, SOS, SOV. It's whatever they feel like.
Until this year, fairly sensible hierarchy had emerged.
Undefeated P5 champ
1-loss P5 champ
1-loss P5
Undefeated G5
Notre Dame would slot in as 1.a or 2.a whenever they had 0 or 1 losses. This is the first time that the unstated guidance wasn't followed. While the Florida fan part of me finds that hilarious, it is also concerning. The dreaded "eye test," which seemed mostly to be eyeing TV ratings, was only used to break ties. The 12-team will have controversies of its own, but at a minimum, almost everyone's argument for who they would have voted number 1 in a poll should be able to get in.