The NCAA wanted controversy, they wanted there to be an argument about who gets in and who doesn’t, and most of all they wanted to create a college football season that was more intense than it was in the previous BCS system. The College Football Playoff system delivered and created the best college football season in recent memory. With that being said there are a few teams, Baylor and TCU, who feel that the system failed them and they believe that they should have been included in the first edition of the College Football Playoff. The question is, did they get it right?

Let’s start with the top two seeds in this year’s playoff, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oregon Ducks. There is little doubt that both of these schools should have been involved in the playoff. Starting with the Tide, it is quite obvious that the winner of America’s toughest conference deserved to be in the playoff. Also, after a tough loss earlier in the season to Ole Miss, Alabama has looked like the dominant team they are, plus the resurgence of Blake Sims after struggling early against Auburn has cemented the Crimson Tide as the favorite heading into the inaugural playoffs. Next is the Oregon Ducks, they avenged their only loss of the season to Arizona in the Pac 12 Championship game and finished the season as one of the hottest teams in the nation. Heisman hopeful Marcus Mariota has the Ducks primed to make a run at the first championship in Oregon history. Moving on to the number three team in the nation, the Florida State Seminoles. While I understand that people don’t believe Florida State should be in the playoff because of their average margin of victory, I would disagree with them. As the only undefeated team left in the nation and the defending national champions, the Noles deserved a shot to prove their still the top dog and that’s why the committee got it right by putting Florida State at three.

With little disagreement about the first three teams selected, the controversy came with who the committee selected for the fourth and final spot in this years playoff. That spot was given to the Ohio State Buckeyes who absolutely dismantled Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game. The other two teams in the running for that fourth spot were TCU and Baylor, and they feel that that they should have been included in the playoff. All of these three teams were deserving, but I tend to side with TCU and I believe that they should have been in the playoff. My reasoning behind that is that TCU had the toughest loss of those teams losing to Baylor, while Ohio State lost to a team in Virginia Tech that only scored three points in a double overtime game against an abysmal Wake Forest team. Also, if just one week ago TCU was two spots better than Ohio State how did a 52 point win make them fall three stops? Finally, the committee’s job was to get the best four teams in the playoff and it’s hard to believe that Ohio State with Cardale Jones is a better team than TCU with a proven quarterback in Trevone Boykin. It’s only sensical to believe that Cardale Jones won’t have the same performance against a stingy Alabama defense that he has against Wisconsin and that’s why I think the committee overvalued Ohio State’s win in the Big Ten championship game. With that being said, give credit to Ohio State who made a strong final impression and forced the committee to make a decision and it ultimately went in their favor.