By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Championship Saturday in College Football started and ended with questions regarding who would be in the top four when the college football playoff starts on December 29^th. The semi-final matchups would in the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl to determine who will play for the National Championship the following week.

Going into Championship Saturday you had Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Georgia holding the top four spots. Alabama, Clemson, and Georgia all had to participate in conference championship games.

Notre Dame got to sit on the couch with a bye while everyone else in contention for a playoff spot Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and even UCF had to win to stay alive in the playoff hunt.

Are conference championship games even needed anymore is the question? Alabama didn’t win the SEC in 2017 or even make the SEC championship game, but got selected as a playoff team and ended up winning the national championship.

The goal of the playoff is to select the best four teams correct? At least I thought it was. I just don’t think we are talking apples to apples unless Notre Dame is made to join a football conference.

Yes, the Irish play basketball in the ACC, but get the easy way out during football season by being an independent. Do you think an undefeated BYU playing Notre Dame’s schedule would have been selected as one of the top four teams in the country? Let me answer that for you, absolutely not.

Championship Saturday looked like this:

Clemson played a five loss Pitt team in the ACC title game and blew them out while Notre Dame sat home and was given a playoff spot. Now we get an ACC title game in Dallas with ND and Clemson in the Cotton Bowl. Clemson will beat ND by three TD’s.

Oklahoma played a three loss Texas team in the Big 12 title game and won by 12.

Ohio State played a four loss Northwestern team in the Big 10 title game and won by 21.

Then you had #1 Alabama and #4 Georgia in an epic SEC title game that Alabama, who was regarded by many as the greatest college football team ever, had to rally to overcome a 4th quarter deficit to pull out the game 35-28.

All of this went down as Notre Dame sits at the house with a bye and punches a ticket into the playoff.

Oklahoma, Georgia, and Ohio State are all better football teams than Notre Dame, but yet Georgia and Ohio State get left out all because Notre Dame gets the easy way out because they beat a six loss Vandy team 22-17, six loss Pitt team 19-14, and a seven loss USC team 24-17.

Don’t forget the Irish beat Michigan 24-17, a team Ohio State hung 62 points on the last week of the regular season. Georgia beat Vanderbilt 41-13, and Clemson beat Pitt 42-10.

The solutions are simple:

1. Make Notre Dame commit to joining the ACC in football and win a conference championship game.
2. Do away with conference title games all together and level the playing field with Notre Dame.
3. Have an 8, 16, or 32 team playoff like all other college football divisions, and crown a real champion.

Georgia and Ohio State would be undefeated playing Notre Dame’s 2018 schedule. The playoff committee always says the goal is to get the four best teams, but it failed miserably in 2018. Notre Dame may not even be the best football team in Indiana.

So, we are stuck with Notre Dame with their weak slate. So, in 2018 we have the top 3 and Notre Dame.

Address the Notre Dame elephant in the room. The football playoff committee needs scrap this system for a true playoff like everyone else does or make Notre Dame join a conference.

There may be 3-4 teams in the SEC that would beat Notre Dame. Politics won the day on the playoff selection committee.