This is the space where a hot take was supposed to live.
Since the College Football Playoff committee released its first rankings on Nov. 2, we’ve been sharpening our knives, waiting to climb atop a soapbox and defend the latest aggrieved party — Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, heck, even Notre Dame managed to earn some sympathy from the masses aligned against the playoff status quo. Sunday was to be the tipping point, when all that outrage, frustration and second-guessing reached its apex.
Instead, we’re left with but one real complaint: The whole thing was kind of dull.
The committee, once again, got it right. Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati will play for the national championship, and that’s exactly as it should be.
Perhaps there’s a shred of controversy surrounding the Bulldogs, who were demolished by Alabama in the SEC championship game. There’s little clamoring for a postseason rematch — even Georgia fans may be reluctant to wade back into those fraught waters — and perhaps the country would be better served by giving a shot to a team such as Baylor or Utah, just to make things interesting. But to do so would be the most egregious deviation from the committee’s core tenets in its history. Georgia, no matter how its SEC season ended, earned its place.
We could celebrate Cincinnati’s inclusion, a watershed moment for the Group of 5. Indeed, it’s a remarkable turn after the Bearcats were relegated to eighth in last year’s final committee rankings, a few years after the 2017 UCF Knights made the argument for a Cinderella relevant on the national stage.
But it’s not as if the committee took a bold stand. No voter stood atop a table in a conference room in Texas and demanded the Bearcats’ inclusion. Instead, Cincinnati simply outlasted its competition, beating its final three opponents — all bowl eligible — by a combined 71 points, while others stumbled to the finish line. The committee didn’t need to weigh the Bearcats’ schedule against a two-loss…
Source : espn
