Booger McFarland was incredulous on Sunday that the College Football Playoff committee went with Alabama over Florida State for the fourth and final spot in this year’s playoff. The ESPN college football analyst felt like the committee was looking at the matchups (Michigan-Alabama) and (Washington-Texas) instead of honoring the teams that deserve to be, i.e. undefeated conference champion Florida State.
“I think we look at this from a selfish standpoint,” said McFarland. “We want the best matchup, so we can say, ‘You know what this year’s semifinals wasn’t a blowout. It wasn’t a blowout like it was the last couple of years, that we got good matchups.’ I just think that’s devastating for the kids at Florida State, and I think we’re diminishing how you win.
“It’s OK to win with defense. It’s OK to have a dominant defense to win a football game. It doesn’t always have to be scoring 50 or 60 points. And I think as a football nation, as a group of analysts, we got to wrap our minds around that. Because to me, this is about, let’s the four best matchups…we can sell it and we can do all these different things. Who cares if Florida State won 16-6 with defense? They dominated a Louisville team from a defensive standpoint. Who cares?”
"I think we look at this from a selfish standpoint. We want the best matchup… And I think we're diminishing how you win… As a football nation, as a group of analysts, we've gotta wrap our mind around that." – Booger McFarland pic.twitter.com/76H5KUoFKi
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 3, 2023
A few minutes later, Joey Galloway took issue with how McFarland used his argument to invoke other members of the panel and ESPN as a whole. Galloway was particularly upset with how McFarland kept saying the word “we,” which he uttered about four times in his rant above.
“A couple of things just happened there that I hate to hear,” began Galloway. “Any connection to the SEC and what they’ve done in the past being any part of this decision. If that’s the case, that’s disappointing to me. I would hate to hear that happen. And then, don’t use the term ‘we’ when you start to give your point there, because there is not a ‘we’ in this. We don’t care about the matchup. We don’t care about who’s playing who and where they’re playing them. We’re here to get the four best teams. That is what we’ve tried to accomplish.”
“Don’t use the term ‘we’ when you start to give your point there. There is not a WE in this. WE don’t care about the matchup. WE don’t care about who’s playing who, and where they’re playing ’em. We’re here to get the four best teams.”- Joey Galloway to Booger McFarland pic.twitter.com/WfPnMqBAqR
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 3, 2023
The conversation between two colleagues was intriguing, especially given Galloway’s attempt to downplay ESPN’s influence on the CFP. During the discussion about the inclusion of the SEC in the college football playoff, Galloway pointed out that using past data to support the decision is not a reliable method. Galloway also disapproved of McFarland’s use of the word “we” and emphasized that the focus should be on selecting the four best teams based on their performance rather than considering potential matchups.
Interestingly, both Greg McElroy and Kirk Herbstreit advocated for Alabama and pushed for the Crimson Tide to be the final team before the announcement of the playoff teams. While that’s their prerogative, it certainly seemed like they were lobbying for an SEC team to be included in the CFP. McFarland insists that an unbeaten Florida State squad should have made the playoffs instead of Alabama. However, he also maintained that the committee favored the Crimson Tide due to more intriguing matchups.
While both bring interesting arguments to the table, it’s certainly notable that Galloway would scold McFarland on live TV for trying to invoke ESPN (or the greater college football world) into a much more global view of the College Football Playoff.
[ESPN]
