College Football faced one of its greatest tragedies yet when the College Football Playoff Committee selected the 12-1 Alabama Crimson Tide over the 13-0 Florida State Seminoles.

First of all, Florida State had an unbelievable undefeated season in the Power Five ACC Conference. Prior to this year, no undefeated Power 5 champion team has been excluded from the top four. Meanwhile, Alabama had an excellent season as well. Alabama won the SEC Championship, another very competitive Power Five conference. However, Alabama suffered a key loss to Texas at home by ten points, early in the season. Despite having a great season, this single loss should have been the lone determining factor in this decision. The fact that the playoff committee would disregard such a significant fact makes college football games seem irrelevant. 

Another ridiculous reason that Alabama supporters have been supporting is the injury of Florida State’s star quarterback Jordan Travis. In the second to last week of the regular season, Travis suffered a horrifying season-ending injury. Their reasoning is that Travis’s injury made the team significantly worse. However, Florida State still had an elite defense and many offensive weapons that still solidified their place as a top team. Florida State’s poor offensive play in the ACC championship was due to third string quarterback, true freshman, quarterback Brock Glenn playing over second string Tate Rodemaker. Rodemaker had suffered a minor injury in the week before and had proven himself a decent quarterback before that. If Florida State had played in the playoffs, Rodemaker would have been playing, making Travis’s injury even less important. Moreover, in 2014, the Ohio State Buckeyes were selected to the playoff with third string quarterback Cardale Jones starting. This team later went on to win the national championship. 

Throughout this whole debate, many sports analysts have referred to the eye test to differentiate these two teams. This means that analysts should watch both teams play and see how they perform against tough opponents, which is not a viable option. For example, those in favor of Alabama often cite Florida State’s performance against rival Florida at Florida’s home stadium. Florida was 5-6 and was not having a good season, and Florida State was struggling to keep a lead. Many sports analysts have referred to college football as becoming a beauty pageant when the eye test is used as it undermines statistics and logical play. Also, Alabama barely won their game against Auburn, a team of similar caliber to Florida. 

Overall, the decision to exclude Florida State from the playoff was disastrous for the sport. Not only did it devalue the importance of games throughout the season, but it also took away an amazing opportunity from a team that absolutely deserved it.