Clay Travis thinks the regular season is irrelevant

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Saturday was admittedly another wild day, capping off an extended wild weekend in college football. Alabama, previously unblemished, lost to their bitter rival Auburn on the road and in doing so, has managed not even to earn the right to play for the SEC Championship.

That privledge belongs to Auburn and Georgia, who will meet in Atlanta next week in Arthur Blank’s (ahem, pardon me, Atlanta’s) fancy new stadium in a rematch from earlier this season. That game was also the only blemish on Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs, which says something incredibly impressive regarding what Auburn has accomplished late in the season.

But what has irked me is the pundits treatment of Alabama, who so many believe, still belongs in the College Football Playoff conversation.

Sure, at 11-1, they look plenty deserving, but comments like this one from Clay Travis drive me up the wall when it comes to college sports (this happens all the time with seeding in March Madness) as  well.

Clay says a lot in this tweet. His point is that Alabama deserves to be in over Ohio State (surprise, surprise), but my problem lies with the part where he says “best four.”

Best four based on what exactly?

Best four according to a subjective ‘expert” eye test?

Best four records overall regardless of conference (hello Central Florida)?

Best four based on pre-season rankings, which is the same methodology as they expert eye test above that had Clay’s Vols ranked very highly? How did that turn out?

Best four average recruiting classes over the past four years?

Best four tailgates?

Best four fan bases? (This is actually what will determine it because it’s always about money...)

Best four teams right now? Missouri is looking pretty good using this methodology considering they have won six straight, with only Wisconsin and Oklahoma having longer such streaks from power schools

And it is this last point that makes people’s methodology for selecting these four teams the most ludicrous of all. Of course Mizzou has no business playing for a title, but they are currently one of the hottest teams in the land.

Clay always likes to talk in “facts” and on many issues we are in agreement, but not here. He is basically saying that the regular season barely matters if it is based on the “best four” and not the four most deserving.

And deserving teams win their conference championship, or at least earn the chance to play for a conference championship. Alabama did not accomplish even that. And for consistency, last year, Ohio State has zero business being in the playoff ahead of Penn State.

My playoff scenario is rather simple:

1-seed: SEC Winner (I’m guessing Georgia wins the re-match)
2-seed: ACC Winner (picking Clemson here)
3-seed: Oklahoma, unless they stumble against TCU
4-seed: Big 10 winner and praying it’s Wisconsin

If Oklahoma does slip, would it not make more sense to include the Georgia/Auburn loser ahead of Alabama as well? Makes sense to me.

“Best four” talk is all garbage, especially since it’s all talk and their is always a conflict of interest (yes, Clay has one by saying Bama is more deserving than OSU). Give the playoff spots to the most accomplished teams who have done it on the field and defied what people’s small brains have said they couldn’t.

They’ve earned it, and the regular season matters.

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