[Patrick Barron]

Michigan #1 Overall, Draws Alabama In Rose Bowl Comment Count

Brian December 3rd, 2023 at 12:31 PM

Well: the committee left out 13-0 Florida State in favor of Alabama, which upset Georgia in the SEC championship game, and Michigan draws them. Alabama's not your usual Alabama team, having struggled for sizeable chunks of the season. They're literally tied with FSU in SP+ at 23.7; Michigan is at 32.1. Bama enters with the #11 offense and #9 defense; Michigan is 10 and 1.

Alabama is 12-1, with a ten-point loss at home to Texas and a series of narrow wins over South Florida (17-3), Texas A&M (26-20), Arkansas (24-21), Auburn (27-24) and Georgia (27-24). They hammered LSU, Mississippi State, and Kentucky and have two-TD wins over Ole Miss and Tennessee.

More analysis to follow. There is no content after the jump.

Comments

Mr. Elbel

December 3rd, 2023 at 1:17 PM ^

The idea that FSU is going to throttle whoever they play in their bowl game is missing the fact that they’ll be in a NY6 Bowl playing someone like Georgia or Ohio State or Oregon. You think they’d throttle any of those 3? Because I think they’d be the ones getting destroyed. Only way they actually get a good draw here is if they land Liberty.

jaysvw

December 3rd, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^

Past accomplishments or not, its time to put up or shut up for the B1G and the other conferences that don't like all the special treatment the SEC gets.  If Michigan wins, we can finally put to rest some of this SEC superiority stuff.  If they loose, well, we're going to have to keep hearing about it until someone can put them in their place on the field. 

M-Dog

December 3rd, 2023 at 2:32 PM ^

TBH, every single time that an SEC team has "unfairly" gotten into the CFP, or "unfairly" gotten a favorable seeding, they have backed it up.

If I am on the CFP committee and it's a 50/50 call, I'm going to put my money on the SEC team every single time until proven otherwise. 

Nobody has proven otherwise so far.

 

Rams

December 3rd, 2023 at 1:55 PM ^

If I remember correctly, a couple years ago an Auburn RB ran out of bounds late against Bama to stop the clock.  If he had gone down in bounds, they beat Alabama in that game and Bama doesn't make the playoff that year.  

Little brother will be little brother

LostPatrol14

December 3rd, 2023 at 1:37 PM ^

FSU is deserving to go, but one of the best four teams? I don’t think so.

The playoffs are about pitting the best four teams. The committee did their job. If Michigan lost JJ in the regular season and Michigan played like shit, I would be understandably disappointed but couldn’t say they would be one of the best four teams. Thankfully, the playoff is expanding to 12 teams next season so this unfortunate situation shouldn’t be more common than it is today.

Buy Bushwood

December 3rd, 2023 at 1:44 PM ^

That’s a slippery slope to say that a committee, inherent with personal biases, are the arbiters of the 4 best teams rather than the body of work of the season.  If that were the case then UGA should get in over Bama.  It was an even game, Bama got a horrible call that provided the winning points.  Now they have the same record.  

Denard's Pro Career

December 3rd, 2023 at 1:55 PM ^

Yeah, the 12 team playoff can’t come soon enough. I’m sick of having the same argument every year.
 

You can’t just speculate that Alabama will be better in a month than Florida State. Florida State had the better year; that should decide who gets in. We’ve already seen Bama play one of these playoff teams—they lost at home. That’s enough for me. 
 

What if news comes out tomorrow that Jaelin Milroe broke his ankle celebrating last night? Or what if he gets hurt in practice in 3 weeks? Are you gonna swap FSU back in?

rice4114

December 3rd, 2023 at 7:18 PM ^

Your 4 best beat shit ass Auburn by 3 and the SEC version of Nebraska (Arkansas) by 3. You guys cant even think straight with the ESPN in your ear all season long. 

THEY WERE #8 24 HOURS AGO and nobody said boo about it. 

The CFP committee lied if Bama was 4 spots worse than FSU as of yesterday morning.

rice4114

December 3rd, 2023 at 7:37 PM ^

If fucking Notre Dame was undefeated and just beat Louisville that wouldve been the win of the century. ARKANSAS... look it up. 10 point loss to Texas. Nobody remembers this but ND got smoked by Louisville. That was such a huuuge win for OSU but meant nothing when Louisville crushed them.

Here is the thing

1. The committee had to put in an SEC team

2. They had to put in Texas before Bama

3. That meant FSU was out.

You want to know the funny part? FSU is better than Texas if Georgia wins. I promise you that #4 is FSU served up on a platter if Georgia wins. FSU is out because....

Georgia lost!

maquih

December 3rd, 2023 at 4:07 PM ^

I mean, we're gonna beat alabama's ass too.  FSU should have been 3 because of the injured QB, behind the other two undefeated conference champs.  Then Texas 4 because they beat alabama in their house.  

So yes, also would have been confident against FSU, but alabama will not be more than another challenge.  Highly penalized team, not Saban's typical Death Star team.  Very good teams but we've beaten better already.  None of them have proven they're better than a team like Penn State.

rice4114

December 3rd, 2023 at 7:40 PM ^

FSU is feed to Georgia at 4 if Georgia wins. You know that is right. 

SEC was getting the bid no matter what. FSU just got screwed because Texas was a package deal to get Bama in.

FSU is out of the playoffs because of a Georgia loss. And none of you espn schleps can deny it. 

FSU is worse than Texas right now because Georgia lost. 

Goggles Paisano

December 4th, 2023 at 6:02 AM ^

I don't want to play Alabama, but they don't deserve to be in.  I don't want to play Ohio State again and I don't want to play Georgia.  I would prefer to play FSU, but if FSU had gotten in under common sense logic, they would likely be #3 with Texas being #4.  And if this were the case, we'd be bitching that Washington has a better resume than us and should be 1.  Thus, setting us up to play FSU.  

Bottom line is FSU indeed got hosed.  We also fear Alabama for good reason.