Bud Elliott of CBS Sports' Cover3 podcast. Bud Elliott of CBS Sports’ Cover3 podcast.
By Kevin Harrish on

After two Group of Six teams earned automatic bids into the 12-team College Football Playoff as two of the five highest-ranked conference champions, there has been a lot of debate about whether or not teams like James Madison and Tulane deserve their place in the field.

However, some of those talking points have been more valid than others.

Since this year’s College Football Playoff field was revealed, there has been some clear pushback against the idea of allowing Group of Six teams to compete in the playoff, since it takes away spots from other teams that might have a more realistic chance at competing for a national title like Notre Dame, Texas, or Vanderbilt this year.

College football personality Bud Elliott of CBS Sports’ Cover3 podcast has certainly not been shy in speaking out against the inclusion of teams like James Madison and Tulane in the playoff field, even going as far as to say that 8-5 Duke deserved a spot over 12-1 James Madison.

“Tulane and JMU being in are charity to avoid getting sued,” Elliott wrote on X this week.

“I don’t care who it is. I hate the idea that you can have zero wins over a top-FIFTY team and make the playoff. Preposterous,” he wrote in another post.

Amid his tirade, someone eventually pointed out that in every other college sport at every other level – including FCS football – conference champions are guaranteed at least a chance of competing for a national title, Elliott had an absolutely bizarre response.

“Football is not every other sport. It’s a ht/wt/speed sport. Collision not contact. The right fielder isn’t pushing the other team’s 2B out of the way,” he wrote in a post. “Physical size/speed is way more important in it.”

When someone pointed out that this explanation seemed to have nothing to do with the conversation at hand, his response grew even more bizarre, as he claimed that allowing a team like James Madison into the College Football Playoff was “literally a safety issue.”

Putting it all together, Elliott is suggesting that it is actually dangerous to allow teams like Tulane and James Madison to compete in the College Football Playoff because the other teams are bigger and faster.

Needless to say, this scorching hot take was thoroughly and relentlessly mocked.

Some highlighted some high-profile instances where Group of Six teams defeated prominent Power Four opponents, like when CFP runner-up Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois at home literally last year. Others pointed out that if it’s dangerous to put Group of Six teams in the playoff, then Power Four teams should not be permitted to play FCS opponents.

Elliott did eventually clarify that his “safety issue” post was a joke, and it probably should have been assumed that it was a tongue-in-cheek comment intended to elicit this sort of response, given the sheer absurdity of the comment and the context of his other social media interactions where he seems more interested in touting his podcast metrics and telling people to “cry harder” rather than having sincere dialogue. And to be fair, if that was the goal, he certainly received the attention he was seeking with over 2 million impressions on his post in under 24 hours.

However, even if that specific comment was facetious and hyperbolic, he made it very clear in other posts that he does not think the Group of Six teams have players capable of physically competing with true national title contenders, which was proven false as recently as last year when Northern Illinois beat Notre Dame 16-14 and outgained the Fighting Irish both on the ground and through the air.

The argument falls apart even further when you consider that Indiana, which is currently the undefeated No. 1 team in the country and the top seed in the College Football Playoff, has a roster loaded with James Madison transfers at key positions, including first-team all-Big Ten linebacker Aiden Fisher, first-team All-Big Ten cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, and second-team All-Big Ten wide receiver Elijah Sarratt. Based on Indiana’s win over defending national champion Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, those players seem to be holding up just fine against national title contenders.

It’s one thing to suggest that teams like Notre Dame and Texas would have a much more realistic chance of competing for a national title if they were included in the playoff field – that’s pretty undeniably true, and Elliott demonstrates this every season using his Blue Chip Ratio. However, it is demonstrably incorrect to suggest that teams and players from Group of Six conferences are not even physically comparable to the other College Football Playoff teams, and it’s pretty jarring to see someone from one of the most popular college football podcasts in the country trumpeting that point, even if the ridiculous “literally a safety issue” comment was in jest.

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