Tuesdays with Gorney: Five thoughts on the first round of the CFB Playoff
The first weekend of the College Football Playoff has come and gone and Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney has some thoughts. Here are his top five:
1. EYEBALL TEST SHOULD BE USED IN SEEDING.
As arbitrary as this might be because the eyeball test could be very tricky and deceiving sometimes, the committee is just too focused on seeding the conference champions too high and not considering enough the strength of schedule and just how incredibly difficult the SEC and the Big Ten are now after expansion.
Hopefully, this changes in the coming years. It’s unfair that the SEC runner-up (Texas) had to host Clemson in the opening round but Big 12 champion Arizona State got a bye even though that conference is nowhere near as difficult to navigate as the SEC.
The same argument could be made for Penn State, which had only one regular season loss (to Ohio State) and didn’t get its second loss until the conference championship loss to Oregon.
2. BOISE STATE GETTING A FIRST-ROUND BYE IS ABSURD.
If a Group of Five team has to be in then it should almost always be the No. 12 seed and have to play in every round. That might sound harsh or unfair but let’s get real – the Broncos have by far the easiest schedule to get to this place and should have to earn their way every step in the playoff to win it all.
To give Boise State a bye when Texas, Penn State, Ohio State and even ACC champion Clemson have to play is ludicrous. Too much weight was given to the Broncos winning the Mountain West – they beat UNLV in the conference championship, big whoop – and maybe to a very strong performance in a 3-point loss to Oregon but the schedule is a joke.
The last three games for Texas were against Clemson, Georgia and Texas A&M. The last three for Boise were UNLV, Oregon State (one of its toughest matchups all season) and a 4-point win at Wyoming.
3. OREGON GOT A VERY TOUGH DRAW.
Of the four teams that got byes in the first round – Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State – one can argue that the Ducks got the toughest second-round opponent.
Penn State looked as solid as ever overwhelming SMU, Notre Dame crushed Indiana and Texas pulled away from Clemson but Ohio State looked phenomenal against Tennessee in a game that turned into a blowout in Columbus. There was talk in the preseason that the Buckeyes might be the best team in the country and they looked like it on Saturday night.
Why this draw becomes tougher for Oregon – don’t you think the Ducks would prefer to play Penn State again like in the Big Ten championship or utilize its speed against Notre Dame – is that Oregon has beaten Ohio State once this season and it’s always tougher to beat a team twice.
On Oct. 12, Ohio State visited Oregon and quarterback Will Howard slid down one second to late or the Buckeyes could have gotten their field goal unit on to kick a potential game winner against the Ducks. Coming for revenge, Ohio State and Oregon at the Rose Bowl is shaping up to be a classic – and the toughest matchup for the Ducks.
4. SEAN MCDONOUGH SERVED SOME HUMBLE PIE.
On Friday night, as Notre Dame was throttling Indiana, play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough lambasted the Big Ten – and particularly the Hoosiers for getting in – while he thought the ACC was getting slighted.
“They need to lose the assumption that the SEC and the Big Ten are clearly head and shoulders above everybody else, particularly the Big Ten,” McDonough said. “The SEC has the recent (history), Alabama, Georgia, but the Big Ten’s won two national championships in college football since when, 2002? That’s 22 seasons. I don’t understand why there’s this presumption. It seems from many that the Big Ten, in particular, is so much better than the ACC or the Big 12. I’m not sure what that’s based on.
“There’s a lot of talk about strength of schedule – well, you’re playing each other. So, if you just assume, ‘Well, our league’s better than everybody else, so therefore our strength…’ What if your league isn’t better than everybody else? Is your strength of schedule better than everybody else?”
The next day, Penn State from the Big Ten totally dominated SMU, 38-10, in a win that included two pick-sixes. Texas downed Clemson, 38-24, after the Longhorns were down 7-0. The ACC is out of the playoff – and McDonough might be out of his mind.
5. IT’S NOT PERFECT, BUT 12 TEAMS ARE BETTER THAN FOUR.
There has been debate and discussion about whether Indiana and SMU should have made the College Football Playoff and whether Arizona State and Boise State should have gotten first-round byes and about all the blowouts on Saturday but having 12 teams is still far superior to only having four.
Having the old days of the Power Five conferences and only four spots never, ever made sense. Teams got screwed out of the playoff so often. I do feel for the SEC teams – Alabama, Ole Miss, to some extent South Carolina – about not getting in but in another sense all three of them blew it at one point this season.
Twelve might be the right number or not exactly perfect but it’s definitely better than four.
