Dawg Debate: Can We Trust The CFP Committee To Do The Right Thing?
Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Welcome to ‘Dawg Debates, in which we debate the issues of the day in Bulldog Nation with a mix of style, grace, and intellect that disqualifies Lugnut Dawg and MaconDawg from ever again having the trust of being expected to properly wrap Christmas gifts. That’s why God himself invented gift bags, anyway. Today’s topic zeroes in on how trusting a group whose trust is questionable. No, it’s not the IRS. Nope, it’s the College Football Playoff Committee and whether or not it views Georgia as 100 percent-into the 12-team field, regardless of Saturday’s result against Texas. The heart of the issue is this: Can Georgia afford to lose this game? Lugnut Dawg: Absolutely not. You can’t afford to rely on people off the field to aid you You heard it time and time again during Friday’s TV broadcast, as Joe Tessitore frequently noted that a win by Georgia over Georgia Tech would lock in a postseason bid. As much as that optimism is appreciated, there’s one small problem. That a committee holding secretive discussions will find ways to defy logic, especially when it is not held accountable for questioning. We have seen it time and time again - Florida State being bypassed, last year’s Georgia team’s merits being dismissed due to one late-game result. Or even this year - when somehow a road loss to a top-15 team dropped you nine spots and other top-ten teams didn’t get relegated as far. Sure, a close loss to Texas would for all accounts not remove Georgia from a playoff spot. But what if the Bulldogs have a massive off game and are blown out and the ACC championship game comes down to one score? It’d be hard for a group of individuals hiding in a room to change the rules at the last minute, and it would not be the first time non-football people made a bad football decision. That’s why Georgia cannot take anything for granted. It must assume that at this point, it’s not a lock for the CFP Playoffs and needs to play like it on Saturday. Macon Dawg: Georgia’s body of work has spoken for itself already. See y’all in the CFP You folks know that no one distrusts the powers that be in college football generally, or the College Football Playoff committee specifically, more than I. For years I have lambasted, shamed, and tut-tutted those greedy, pigskin-ignorant tweed-wearers over their decisions which are usually irrational and often inexplicable. I don’t trust them to do the right thing, unless the right thing by some happy coincidence makes them more money, or the right thing is standing around being useless in front of a buffet table. And that’s why I am confident that Georgia would be playing in the College Football Playoff even with a loss to Texas on Saturday. In the four team playoff era the committee’s job was in some ways more difficult. They had to pick four out of the best six teams in America. And sometimes that meant ruffling the feathers of big, vocal fanbases. It also sometimes meant leaving teams from large television markets out of the equation, and for that I’m sure they sometimes wept. Now, however, the committee can accomplish its goal of wringing out the highest possible viewership and ad revenue while stepping on the toes of the Boise States and Washington States of the world. As I’ve said in this space on more than one occasion, the currency of the realm in college football is in fact currency. And the committee is putting together a twelve team slate that is meant to keep college football on your television screen or steaming device from here until late January. The way to do that is with the most bankable programs in college football. That now includes Georgia, doubly so given that putting a three loss Georgia team installs us as the made-for-TV villain, the entitled empire that doesn’t deserve to be there. Every Star Wars movie needs a Darth Vader. Georgia, which draws eyeballs every time it plays (including for. Those screaming at their screens about how overrated the Dawgs are), can be that Darth Vader. If it’s close, the Bulldogs are getting the nod not because we deserve it, but because we fill a financial need. The committee wants us in that playoff. It needs us in that playoff. Unless they decide to throw us over for a three loss Alabama team. They’d love to do that, too. Go ‘Dawgs!!!
Welcome to ‘Dawg Debates, in which we debate the issues of the day in Bulldog Nation with a mix of style, grace, and intellect that disqualifies Lugnut Dawg and MaconDawg from ever again having the trust of being expected to properly wrap Christmas gifts. That’s why God himself invented gift bags, anyway.
Today’s topic zeroes in on how trusting a group whose trust is questionable. No, it’s not the IRS. Nope, it’s the College Football Playoff Committee and whether or not it views Georgia as 100 percent-into the 12-team field, regardless of Saturday’s result against Texas.
The heart of the issue is this: Can Georgia afford to lose this game?
Lugnut Dawg: Absolutely not. You can’t afford to rely on people off the field to aid you
You heard it time and time again during Friday’s TV broadcast, as Joe Tessitore frequently noted that a win by Georgia over Georgia Tech would lock in a postseason bid.
As much as that optimism is appreciated, there’s one small problem.
That a committee holding secretive discussions will find ways to defy logic, especially when it is not held accountable for questioning.
We have seen it time and time again - Florida State being bypassed, last year’s Georgia team’s merits being dismissed due to one late-game result. Or even this year - when somehow a road loss to a top-15 team dropped you nine spots and other top-ten teams didn’t get relegated as far.
Sure, a close loss to Texas would for all accounts not remove Georgia from a playoff spot.
But what if the Bulldogs have a massive off game and are blown out and the ACC championship game comes down to one score?
It’d be hard for a group of individuals hiding in a room to change the rules at the last minute, and it would not be the first time non-football people made a bad football decision.
That’s why Georgia cannot take anything for granted. It must assume that at this point, it’s not a lock for the CFP Playoffs and needs to play like it on Saturday.
Macon Dawg: Georgia’s body of work has spoken for itself already. See y’all in the CFP
You folks know that no one distrusts the powers that be in college football generally, or the College Football Playoff committee specifically, more than I. For years I have lambasted, shamed, and tut-tutted those greedy, pigskin-ignorant tweed-wearers over their decisions which are usually irrational and often inexplicable. I don’t trust them to do the right thing, unless the right thing by some happy coincidence makes them more money, or the right thing is standing around being useless in front of a buffet table.
And that’s why I am confident that Georgia would be playing in the College Football Playoff even with a loss to Texas on Saturday.
In the four team playoff era the committee’s job was in some ways more difficult. They had to pick four out of the best six teams in America. And sometimes that meant ruffling the feathers of big, vocal fanbases. It also sometimes meant leaving teams from large television markets out of the equation, and for that I’m sure they sometimes wept.
Now, however, the committee can accomplish its goal of wringing out the highest possible viewership and ad revenue while stepping on the toes of the Boise States and Washington States of the world. As I’ve said in this space on more than one occasion, the currency of the realm in college football is in fact currency. And the committee is putting together a twelve team slate that is meant to keep college football on your television screen or steaming device from here until late January.
The way to do that is with the most bankable programs in college football. That now includes Georgia, doubly so given that putting a three loss Georgia team installs us as the made-for-TV villain, the entitled empire that doesn’t deserve to be there. Every Star Wars movie needs a Darth Vader. Georgia, which draws eyeballs every time it plays (including for. Those screaming at their screens about how overrated the Dawgs are), can be that Darth Vader. If it’s close, the Bulldogs are getting the nod not because we deserve it, but because we fill a financial need. The committee wants us in that playoff. It needs us in that playoff.
Unless they decide to throw us over for a three loss Alabama team. They’d love to do that, too.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
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