With the College Football Playoff getting ready to kick off, there has been a lot of discussion about the field and who belongs in it. The debate started with Notre Dame being snubbed, but then moved on to the fact that James Madison and Tulane both got in from the Group of Five conferences. There has been talk that they don't deserve to be in the same postseason as the power conference teams.
On Thursday's episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” legendary head coach Nick Saban joined in on the criticism that has been piled on against James Madison and Tulane's inclusion in the CFP. He compared it to the major leagues playing a Triple-A team in the postseason in baseball.
“Look, would we allow the winner of the Triple-A baseball league … in the World Series playoffs?” Saban asked rhetorically. “… That’s the equivalent of what we do when JMU gets into the College Football Playoff, and Notre Dame doesn’t. I mean, I don’t want to start any shit here, but it is what it is.”
Saban's critique comes down to the fact that Group of Five teams effectively force the CFP to bump Power Four teams he considers more deserving of inclusion out of the 12-team field, in this year's instance, which left Notre Dame and BYU on the outside looking in since Tulane and James Madison were ranked higher as conference champions.
The rules the College Football Playoff selection committee has in place reward the highest-ranked conference champions with an automatic bid. Due to the ACC's scheduling and tiebreaker rules, Duke played Virginia and beat Virginia. If they had done the tiebreakers correctly, Miami would have made it to the championship and taken that spot.
This weekend, the Group of Five has an opportunity to make a statement. Tulane visits Ole Miss in a rematch of a game that was played earlier in the season. Then, James Madison visits Oregon with a big target on its back, since it was taking more criticism than Tulane did as the second Group of Five team to get in.
