Georgia‘s emphatic 28-7 win over Alabama within the SEC Championship Sport on Saturday punched the Bulldogs’ ticket to the Faculty Soccer Playoff, whereas additionally giving them bragging rights within the SEC as convention champions. However Georgia’s Faculty Soccer destiny was already settled going into Saturday. It was going to be in it doesn’t matter what. It was only a matter of whether or not it might be as a top-four seed with a bye into the quarterfinals.
Now we all know it can have all of that.
Alabama’s CFP future was a little bit cloudier.
Clearly, a win would have put them in because the SEC champions, however a loss was going to create some intense dialogue as as to if or not their resume is sweet sufficient to get in with three losses, and whether or not or not a convention championship loss ought to punish them.
On this case, it ought to. Particularly given the context of every thing else occurring on the prime of the rankings.
Alabama must be disregarded of the Faculty Soccer Playoff
The arguments are going to be predictable, and ABC’s Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit already began the cage-rattling and shameless PR propaganda for the SEC within the closing seconds of the printed.
Alabama and SEC supporters will scream from the mountaintops about how robust the SEC is and the way brutal convention play is week-in and week-out.
They’ll argue about how a convention championship loss mustn’t harm the Crimson Tide, whereas additionally hypocritically stating BYU‘s ugly loss to Texas Tech within the Massive 12 recreation earlier on Saturday.
They’ll speak about Alabama having large regular-season wins over Georgia and Missouri.
However none of it modifications the easy actuality surrounding the Crimson Tide proper now: They simply don’t appear like a playoff workforce.
Nor have they got the resume of an at-large playoff workforce.
Regardless that Saturday’s loss was a convention championship recreation loss, it was an emphatic loss in a recreation the place they weren’t even remotely aggressive in opposition to Georgia. They misplaced by three touchdowns, completed the sport with solely 209 yards of complete offense (together with minus-three yards dashing) and had been by no means, at any level, in it. It was a one-sided beat-down from the opening kickoff.
They had been out-classed and out-played.
If you add that on to the truth that considered one of Alabama’s three losses was a ghastly defeat to what turned out to be a foul Florida State workforce to open the season, and the way they needed to scratch and claw out wins in opposition to unranked groups like South Carolina, LSU and Auburn down the stretch, it is simply not an excessively spectacular workforce. Even within the SEC.
The massive debate for the committee earlier than Sunday’s midday announcement goes to come back right down to Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame, and whether or not or not the previous ought to drop behind the latter two groups (when they didn’t play in convention championship video games).
Lots of issues matter on this dialogue, and the eye-test and the way all of those groups are enjoying proper now are amongst them. It’s laborious to take a look at Alabama, Notre Dame and Miami and conclude that Alabama is one of the best of these three groups.
Whereas Miami and Notre Dame have been routing groups down the stretch, Alabama has barely been escaping. On Saturday, it didn’t even present up for the struggle. That needs to be disqualifying.
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