Pitiful Texas Tech, Alabama CFP performances made Group of Five complaints even more idiotic

For weeks, the narrative has been loud and unyielding.

Group of Five schools do not belong in the College Football Playoff.

The reasons ran the gamut…

• Even with sterling records and conference championships, they haven’t earned the right.
• College football audiences don’t want to see Cinderellas, only name brands and powerhouses.
• Letting G5 schools in is like allowing Triple-A baseball teams to compete in the MLB playoffs.
• Mediocre SEC schools could beat these teams with one hand tied behind their back.
• They’re benefiting from a flawed system that rewards automatic qualifiers over better teams.
• Allowing G5 athletes to compete against Power 4 schools poses a threat to their physical safety.
• It’s not fair to G5 players or coaches that their season ends in a CFP blowout loss on national TV.
• It would just be better if Notre Dame were here.

Regardless of the reasoning, they all come to the same conclusion: G5 involvement in the CFP should be limited or, better yet, outright banned.

It’s the logical end result of college football’s groupthink messaging that devalues winning to make three-loss SEC/Big Ten teams more appealing. We shouldn’t expect anything less from talking heads who work for the companies that own billion-dollar CFB broadcasting rights.

Included in the argument is that when the CFP is left to the Power 4 schools, the games are better, the experience is more enjoyable, and each team deserves to be there.

The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Alabama Crimson Tide did everything they could to disprove that theory on Thursday.

A day after Miami dethroned Ohio State on New Year’s Eve, we were treated to a triple-header of CFP quarterfinals games that were presumed to be where the playoff really begins.

In the first round, James Madison bore the wrath of college football’s loudest critics due to their 17-point loss to the Oregon Ducks (51-34) in Eugene. The way some people described this game, you’d have thought the Dukes lay down and gave up on the first whistle.

Fast-forward to Thursday, and Oregon absolutely steamrolled Texas Tech 23-0 in the Orange Bowl. Talk about lying down.

While the Ducks swarmed JMU from the jump, the Dukes never gave up, battling back to put 28 second-half points on the board and garnering over 500 yards of offense. In most contexts, it would have been considered a gutsy road performance.

The Ducks didn’t quite snuff out the Red Raiders in the same way, taking a 6-0 lead into halftime. However, the Red Raiders failed to even show up at any point in the game. They ended up with season lows in passing yards, rushing yards, and first downs while getting shut out.

On paper, JMU put together a far more impressive performance than TTU. However, we’re pretty sure Urban Meyer won’t say it was “unfair” to the Red Raiders to have to endure their embarrassing defeat.

Meanwhile, the Tulane Green Wave got legitimately blown out by Ole Miss in the first round, 41-10. Still, they were able to rack up over 400 yards of total offense, garner 20 first downs, and average 5.9 yards per play. Moral victories all, for sure, but a sign of a team that put up a fight.

The same cannot be said for Alabama, which offered up a putrid performance in the Rose Bowl against Indiana. The Hoosiers barely broke a sweat as they systematically picked the Tide apart en route to a 38-3 victory. Alabama finished with 193 total yards of offense, 23 rushing yards, and zero touchdowns. They looked every bit the participation trophy combatant some wondered they were when they got into the CFP with three losses.

“It feels like Alabama, it’s just strange to see,” said Kirk Herbstreit, a few plays before Alabama gave up another touchdown. “They’re just existing. They’re just out there. Nobody is penetrating. Nobody is playing with any fire. It’s almost like they feel defeated. Like there’s nothing we can do. Nobody is making an impact play, or not even trying… Hands on their hips. They’re just kind of out there.”

What made the Crimson Tide’s pathetic effort all the more infuriating is that this is precisely the kind of team that people like Nick Saban, Paul Finebaum, Josh Pate, and Herbstreit have fought to ensure gets into the CFP over smaller programs and G5 schools. Ironically, Herbstreit was one of the loudest proponents of putting Alabama in this year despite having three losses.

The amount of oxygen given to demanding Alabama be included in the CFP is enraging in retrospect. They played like a team that thought they deserved to be there because of the name on the front of their jersey.

And yet, this is what we have to look forward to. College football’s loudest voices will continue to bang the drum for teams like Alabama, who couldn’t get the job done in the regular season, but we’re told they still deserve a shot. All the while, teams that take care of business are deemed unworthy.

You know who didn’t handle themselves like that? Tulane and JMU. Whatever you think of the result and their impact on TV ratings, they played like schools that were given an opportunity. They played with heart.

Texas Tech and Alabama only seemed to be included because they “deserved” it, as we’re told.

But you won’t hear any complaints about these schools because of their blowout losses. That’s because they’re “allowed” to get blown out in the CFP, just like all the Power 4 schools that have lost lopsided games before them. Those losses aren’t held against them because the ratings numbers look good.

The problem with the College Football Playoff isn’t Group of Five schools. The problem is the playoff itself. It’s already expanded beyond the number of schools that should honestly be playing for a national title. It doesn’t matter if the team losing by 30 is Tulane or Alabama; there’s really only three or four schools that should be in the hunt at this point. But there’s too much money involved for that, so we’re stuck in this argument in perpetuity.

Of course, none of this will change the chorus of college football talking heads calling for the G5 to be removed from consideration. They’ll continue peddling their arguments based on cherry-picked facts or singular games, rather than aggregate information. And they’ll almost certainly get what they want eventually.

But just remember, when that happens, you’ll still get games like Alabama-Indiana and Oregon-Texas Tech. The Raiders and Tide laid stinking eggs, but they were wearing the right jersey while doing it. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters, unfortunately.