Never one to hold back his opinions, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Charles Barkley has thrown his hat into the ring that has become the College Football Playoff echo chamber.
WBD Sports NBA analyst Barkley, an Auburn University alum, previously quipped that if his Tigers were going to be baptizing people — in reference to coach Hugh Freeze making headlines when he helped baptize Auburn safety Sylvester Smith — then they’d better be praying for better quarterback play.
It just so happens that in the absence of Jordan Travis, perhaps Florida State should’ve prayed for better quarterback play as well. But Sir Charles doesn’t see it that way. He pushes back at the idea that the Seminoles should have been punished — in the case, left out of the CFP — because Travis suffered a season-ending injury, even though they were an unbeaten conference champion.
In a courtside interview during Sunday’s ESPN broadcast of a men’s basketball game between USC and Auburn, Barkley put forth an interesting argument. He stated that penalizing teams for losing starters is unfair to the backups who must step up.
“Here’s my problem with the whole thing as a player: they penalize because they lost their starters,” Barkley said via On3. “I said, ‘Well, wait a minute, you showed total disrespect to the backups.’ That was my whole problem. Hey, you know how much I love Coach Saban and Alabama. I mean, I wouldn’t say I like Alabama. I like Coach Saban. Winning with backups should have gave you brownie points, not penalize you.”
“If we’re gonna play sports now where it only matters if you’re using your starters, I don’t want to be in that world. They won three games with a backup and another backup. I’m really looking forward to the playoffs now that I went on my rant. I have zero idea who’s going to win those two games because we got four elite teams, and I’m gonna be watching.”
While Barkley will be watching, he won’t be pulling for the Crimson Tide. As an Auburn grad and fan, that would be a mortal sin. He couldn’t pick the national title winner, but he said he’d rather see any of Michigan, Washington or Texas before Alabama.
“I can’t root for Alabama under any circumstances,” Barkley said. “I love Coach Saban. He’s been great to me. But I can never root for Alabama. Under any circumstances. I told you if they played Afghanistan, I’d be pulling for Afghanistan.”
Beyond the laughs and barbs, Barkley’s point raises a valid question about fairness in college football when injuries strike. It certainly seems like if it were up to him, Florida State wouldn’t have been left out in favor of Alabama, and that’s coming from his actual viewpoint rather than Aurbun fan’s bias against the Crimson Tide.
Though, invoking Afghanistan is certainly an interesting choice.
[On3]
