Michigan #1 Overall, Draws Alabama In Rose Bowl
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.
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.
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:33 PM ^
Also, those games will end up with a bunch of opt-outs on each side. So, kinda hard to base a principled claim to a share of the title when the teams are not behaving in a fully competitive way.
December 3rd, 2023 at 5:44 PM ^
Only way they have a principled claim is if they’re ranked #1 by an NCAA recognized poll, like UCF and the Colley Matrix in 2017.
December 3rd, 2023 at 9:19 PM ^
Scott Frost’s mom approves. That trophy goes next to the Out-Hitting Award on the “Who Gives a Shit” mantle.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:52 PM ^
FSU is playing Georgia. Kirby is going to open up a can. Bet that.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:57 PM ^
If both win out Michigan would be 15-0, FSU would be 14-0. No chance for any shared anything.
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:35 PM ^
We???? I think you’re having pronoun issues. Try first person singular instead of plural. 🤔
December 3rd, 2023 at 12:54 PM ^
Herbstreit, on behalf of the SEC, actually said on the show that if McCarthy had been knocked out last night Michigan would be about of the CFP. Apparently the ACC is now officially the MAC.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:02 PM ^
An osu homer talking about how a team shouldn't make it in without their starting qb is peak shithousery. Just the pure essence of brain rot
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:13 PM ^
I think there’s a distinct difference when the player replacing the QB goes out and proves himself to be a competent piece. You can’t compare Cardale Jones and Rodemaker/Glenn.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
Bills fan here and you absolutely can
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:39 PM ^
Cardale Jones went into the Big Ten Championship and threw for 257 and 3 TDs in a 59-0 win over #13 Wisconsin…
Rodemaker/Glenn COMBINED to go 21/46 for 189 yards and 0 TDs in two starts against FBS competition…
So no, you absolutely cannot compare them.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:53 PM ^
and Elliott ran for 220 yards. Brian Ferentz would have put up 30 points on that Wisconsin team.
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:12 PM ^
k so the joke is based on the fact that cardale is not very good at football, hence the Bills drop
December 3rd, 2023 at 7:44 PM ^
Would they have lead FSU to a 3 point win vs Arkansas and Auburn? How about leading to a 10 point loss at home? Could they have reached those lofty eye test goals we have set before the playoff committee?
December 3rd, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
Bama is in on past accomplishments.
And a really foolish two man rush from Auburn.
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.
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.
December 3rd, 2023 at 7:15 PM ^
Yep the last time they were #8 and jumped an undefeated conference champ that was #4 it all worked out. God damn 4-8 Arkansas by a field goal. You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Nothing to see here folks.
movealong.gif
December 3rd, 2023 at 3:55 PM ^
I guess that is true. Fate has chosen Michigan to finally break the SEC superiority stuff.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:17 PM ^
That 2-man rush was the epitome of idiocy...or as it's known in Alabama: Auburn's MO.
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
December 4th, 2023 at 5:53 AM ^
Tank Bigsby
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:06 PM ^
Yes they did. Beat Bama!
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:19 PM ^
You may not have been born, but this exact same thing happened to 10-0-1 Michigan in 1973, when the B10 voted to go against decades of precedent & send osu to consecutive Rose Bowls because our QB Dennis Franklin got injured.
I'm still pissed!
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.
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.
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
Where have you been? A committee's been making the decisions for quite some time.
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?
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:02 PM ^
No, but I wouldn't feel sorry for saban either!
December 3rd, 2023 at 3:20 PM ^
December 4th, 2023 at 10:05 AM ^
Liberty is undefeated. Why aren't they being talked about? By these standards, Liberty should be in the playoffs too since they won every game on their schedule. Best four teams be damned lol
December 3rd, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^
They apparently one of top 4 last week right? CFP thought so.
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.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:39 PM ^
Yeah if we beat Iowa to win the big ten with Jayden Denegal and got left out as punishment for that? I’d be livid. They got absolutely screwed, even though I do think Bama is better than FSU without Travis
December 3rd, 2023 at 3:57 PM ^
I do think Bama is better than FSU without Travis
Same type of logic as I think Oregon is better than Washington despite already losing to Washington.
December 3rd, 2023 at 7:19 PM ^
Yeah imagine if Wazzu and Oregon never played the rematch. These experts wouldve had Oregon with their fucking eye tests.
December 3rd, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
And yet Louisville is much better than Auburn. And FSU's win over Louisville was commanding in comparison to Alabama's won over Auburn. That is a slippery slope.
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!
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
Michigan QB, isn't on crutches til February, get real.
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:25 PM ^
We can't have it both ways. We can't say that FSU got screwed and then say that we wish we were seeded against them and not Alabama.
Alabama was the right choice. The fact that we are concerned about having to face them kind of proves that.
December 3rd, 2023 at 3:14 PM ^
Given our 50+ year tradition of repeatedly face-planting in bowl games—especially when we’re favored over a top-ten team—Michigan fans should be concerned with whoever we play.
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.
December 3rd, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
Why not? Teams can match up better or worse to others all the time. There are for sure 8 really good teams regardless so 7 others would be concerns. Last week committed had FSU 4th yet tens above loses and they win yet drop.
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.
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.
December 3rd, 2023 at 2:38 PM ^
Ha, that's what you get with Saban!
December 3rd, 2023 at 4:41 PM ^
I blame everyone who thought a playoff was ever a good option for college football.
Let’s just go back to multiple polls and multiple national champions occasionally. It was much more fun and much less corrupt and distasteful.
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