Think of the College Football Playoff selection committee as Clueless Joe Biden — eventually doing the right thing, if only after having been dragged there kicking and screaming.
In the case of the football playoffs, that means SMU is in and Alabama is out after what the chairman was quoted as saying was “quite a debate.”
It shouldn’t have been. SMU is 11-2 and lost a nailbiter to Clemson in the ACC title game. Alabama is 9-3, with two losses to 6-6 teams (Vanderbilt and Oklahoma) and that Oklahoma loss being of recent vintage, by a particularly one-sided score.
Clearly, Alabama has the superior football history, with multiple national titles. But this year, SMU deserves the nod. It should have been clearcut, but apparently was not.
Still, there was a possible bit of petty revenge regarding the actual game assignments, sort of like Clueless Joe rushing to endorse Kamala Chameleon to stick it in the face of the people who forced him out.
The committee equivalent is seeding SMU ahead of Clemson, the team it just lost to, and thereby sending the Mustangs from suburban Dallas to the great, white north for a late December game at Penn State.
SMU at Texas would have more sense for reasons of geography and rivalry.
Alas, getting SMU means PSU coach James Franklin, the college football equivalent of Biden, is saddled with a game that can’t help his reputation for losing the big games.
Penn State is the higher seed and will be favored by the gambling types, which means Franklin is expected to win. If Penn State wins, so what? Franklin and the Lions should do so as the higher seed playing at home. But if Penn State loses . . .
We shall await this game almost as much as Christmas. At least SMU got in and that’s the important takeaway.
Sam Ross Jr's site 