Saturday’s football feast has been served and devoured, leaving us to deal with many cases of indigestion.
Begin with all the critics who used the blowout losses by Indiana Friday night and SMU Saturday to rail against those teams’ inclusion in the 12-team college playoff field.
Lane Kiffin’s sour grapes are predictable. His Ole Miss team is one of the units that didn’t make it despite going 9-3.
Lane, buddy, your stellar group lost to a 4-8 Kentucky team. Yet you had the hotty toddys to go on social media during Indiana’s 27-17 loss to Notre Dame, and SMU’s 38-10 defeat to Penn State to take jabs at the selection committee.
This just in, Lane, if only you had beaten mediocre Kentucky you probably are in the field. Any mirrors in your house? Try looking in one of them.
Others in the media and coaching fraternity were quick to rake the committee for including the teams from major conferences (Big Ten for Indiana and ACC for SMU) with the best records that didn’t win conference championships.
It seems ACC champion Clemson got a pass on its large first-round loss because, despite being dominated for a great part of a game at Texas Saturday, the Tigers rallied to lose by a relatively close 38-24 final. But, after jumping up 7-0, Clemson was outscored 31-3 over the next 30 minutes or so of playing time. This is less than stellar stuff.
The critics seemed to have lost their social media connections early in the nightcap, when Ohio State jumped out to a 21-0 lead vs. Tennessee. That would be Tennessee from the mighty SEC. But the Volunteers looked extremely overmatched.
By the fourth quarter, Ohio State was up 42-10 on the way to a 42-17 win. A “scarlet smackdown” announcer Chris Fowler branded it at game’s end.
If Tennessee had been wearing Indiana or SMU uniforms, critics would have rushed to judge. Get them out of the playoffs. They don’t belong. Look at them. Ridiculous. Overmatched.
But 10-2 Tennessee getting humbled invoked no such judgement. What, no rush to social media, Lane, to decry the weak SEC?
This Ohio State-Tennessee result was just another brick in the first-round wall, not a total indictment of the losers.
First, the opening round games are played in the home stadiums of the higher seed, an advantage most would agree. The home teams are thought to be better and are rewarded with a home game. That all four home teams would win, and mostly in impressive fashion, should have been expected to some degree.
Also, it’s winter in the north and teams from warmer climes, such as SMU or Tennessee, might be thought to be at something of a disadvantage due to the frigid temperatures.
Pregame coverage of the Tennessee-Ohio State game was long on detailing the great pains Tennessee had taken to try to keep its quarterback warm. It didn’t seem to help.
Videos of this Ohio State-Tennessee game should be provided to Kiffin and his ilk, to be viewed often ahead of next season in the pursuit of humility and perspective when it comes to the matter of playoff team selections.
Sam Ross Jr's site 