Split title not likely this time or again
The question seemed like a valid one moments after Florida State was left out of the College Football Playoff field on Dec. 3.
The Seminoles, fresh off winning the Atlantic Coast Conference title the night before and unbeaten in all 13 of their games to date this season, wound up No. 5 in the CFP committee’s final rankings for the last four-team edition of the playoff but were No. 4 in the AP Top 25 poll released earlier that day.
Could the Seminoles, with an Orange Bowl victory against No. 6 Georgia (12-1) — the Bulldogs, winner of the past two national championships, missed the playoff after losing the Southeastern Conference title game to Alabama and will face Florida State on Saturday in Miami Gardens, Florida — be voted No. 1 in the final AP rankings next month?
“As a matter of principle, I’d consider ranking Florida State No. 1 regardless of whether they are in the CFP field,” said ESPN’s Rece Davis, a longtime AP Top 25 voter. “Much like the selection process itself, the exercise is who, in my judgment, is the best team.”
In reality, though, the current state of college football’s postseason all but renders the conversation moot. Between players transferring or opting out to concentrate on NFL draft preparations once the regular season is over, and coaching staffs being turned upside down by hirings and firings at the same time, the better question these days is this: How much consideration should poll voters give to postseason games outside the CFP at all?
“This is my 14th time as an AP voter, and I definitely think I will be less likely to vote teams considerably up or down after the bowls than I did in the past,” said Scott Rabalais of The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Florida State team that takes the field this weekend will be a shell of the one that beat Louisville 16-6 to win the ACC title on Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Star quarterback Jordan Travis is still recovering from a broken leg, an injury that essentially kept the Seminoles out of the playoff. Many of the other top players on the roster, including defensive end Jared Verse, running back Tre Benson and receiver Keon Coleman, have opted out as they look toward their potential pro football future. Earlier this week, No. 2 quarterback Tate Rodemaker, who started the past two games, chose to seek a transfer and skip the Orange Bowl.
Some of the Seminoles who will play weren’t shy about saying they should be No. 1 if they finish as the only unbeaten Power Five team.
“It’s only right,” linebacker Kalen DeLoach said. “Nothing else needs to be said if we’re the only undefeated team.”
Georgia is in much better shape from a personnel standpoint. Although 19 Bulldogs hit the transfer portal after Alabama ended the program’s 29-game winning streak, most of them were backup players. It does appear All-America tight end Brock Bowers and highly regarded tackle Amarius Mims will miss the game after injuries sidelined both for part of the season.
“If Florida State handles Georgia easily and the three CFP games are duds, then I’d gladly vote the Seminoles No. 1, but it’s not going to happen,”
said AP Top 25 voter Robert Cessna of the Bryan-College Station Eagle newspaper in Texas.
The CFP semifinals are set for New Year’s Day, with No. 1 Michigan (13-0), the Big 12 champion, facing fourth -seeded Alabama (12-1) in the Rose Bowl, and No. 2 Washing -ton (13-0), the Pac-12 champ, taking on No. 3 Texas (12-1), the Big 12 champ, in the Sugar Bowl to complete Monday’s doubleheader. The CFP final is Jan. 8 in Houston, and the final AP Top 25 will be released a few hours after its conclusion.
Rabalais covers LSU, which will play Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Monday in Tampa, Florida, without Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels after the star quarterback opted out. LSU is No. 13 in the current AP Top 25.
“The lack of a player of Daniels’ caliber has to be taken into consideration were LSU to lose and I was deciding where to put them on my final ballot,” The Advocate writer said.
In some cases, the teams playing in the bowls barely resemble the ones that earned those postseason trips and rankings.
Take the Sun Bowl, with No. 15 Notre Dame (9-3) facing No. 21 Oregon State (8-4) on Friday in El Paso, Texas. Neither team will have its starting quarterback after Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman (NFL draft) and Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei (transfer) opted out.
In addition to Hartman, the Fighting Irish are missing most of their starters on offense, including All-America offensive tackle Joe Alt and running back Audric Estime, a second-team All-American. Offensive coordinator Gerad Parker recently took the head coaching job at Troy.
Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith left the Beavers for Michigan State after the regular-season finale. Now they are down to a thirdstring quarterback, though one with starting experience in Ben Gulbranson, and have had several key players transfer out. Leading rusher Damien Martinez is serving a suspension.
“The stats count. It counts in the win-loss column. When people look at Notre Dame and Oregon State’s record in the future, it’s going to include the results of this game. In that regard, well, I’ll factor it in,” Matt Brown from the The Athletic said on the AP Top 25 College Football Podcast. “On the other hand, if Notre Dame and Oregon State had these rosters for most of the year? The teams that take the field will really not be top-20 teams.”
Saturday’s Peach Bowl with No. 10 Penn State facing No. 11 Ole Miss is shaping up to have fairly good representation from each team, though Nittany Lions All-American offensive lineman Olu Fashanu has said only that he will be with the team, not that he will play for Penn State. Teammate and standout defensive end Chop Robinson isn’t going to play.
“It’s almost like we’re going back in time to how bowl games are perceived,” Brown said.
For a big chunk of the 20th century, bowl games were few and not taken into account in the final AP poll. Not until 1968 did the AP begin releasing a final poll after bowls were played. As late as 1973, Alabama and Notre Dame shared the national title because the coaches’ poll didn’t take into account bowl games. The Irish beat the Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl and finished No. 1 in the AP poll, but the coaches had already declared Alabama the top team.
The last season in which there was a split national title was 2003, when Southern California was voted No. 1 in the AP poll after being left out of the Bowl Championship Series title game, where LSU beat Oklahoma.
The four-team playoff has all but ensured it will never happen again. The Florida State snub provided a chance to consider the possibility, but with a 12-team playoff coming next season, shared national championships will go the way of the wishbone offense and tear-away jerseys.
Those things are now merely part of college football’s past.