Alabama football is currently preparing for a rematch against Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff. The team is doing this in the midst of speculation that Kalen DeBoer could leave Alabama for Michigan. As the team is playoff-bound, Robert Griffin III is speaking out about “SEC bias” by the selection committee, by including Alabama in the playoff.
“Anyone that has paid attention to the season knows that Miami beat Notre Dame in a head-to –head matchup, but the process that happened that ended up leaving Notre Dame out, putting Miami and leaving BYU out, and keeping Alabama in, there there's so much uncertainty with the college football playoff selection process, the SEC bias that was in there,” said RGIII in a one-on-one interview with RG. “There's no way that you punish BYU, but don't punish Alabama for losing the conference championship game and getting blown out in it.”
Alabama became the first three-loss team to make it to the College Football Playoff. They lost in the first week of the season to Florida State, and then would later lose to Oklahoma at home by two points. In the SEC Championship, the Crimson Tide was dominated by Georgia, as the Tide fell 28-7.
Meanwhile, BYU lost just twice this season, both times to Texas Tech. They lost 29-7 in the regular season and then 34-7 in the Big 12 Championship. Notre Dame also fell just twice, losing to Miami and Texas A&M to start the season, and then winning ten straight.
“The only way you do that is if there's SEC bias with the committee and based on knowing intricately how they go through the selection process,” said Griffin III. “Because I took the time to educate myself on that and actually go to the seminar to figure out how they get these teams in and the voting process and how it all works. The easiest thing they could have done was punish both Alabama and BYU and put in Miami and Notre Dame, or punish neither of them and have both Alabama and BYU be in because they made it to their conference championship games and they felt like they were worthy of playing in the college football playoff.”
The Tide may have gotten lucky to get into the playoffs. Notre Dame had an argument to get in, as did BYU. So did a two-loss Vanderbilt, but one of those losses was to Alabama. Alabama's third loss was in a conference championship, and they were consistently ranked ahead of other contenders. Regardless, RGIII may have a point that Alabama in the playoffs is part of SEC bias.
