Ira Schoffel: Calls for CFP transparency should be heeded for sake of college football

Through most of our lifetimes, college football has thrived in spite of self.

The polls have always been kind of silly. The BCS rankings weren’t a whole lot better. The idea of a College Football Playoff sounded great, but we’ve known all along that it was a flawed process. Yet we all kept watching.

When the players couldn’t make money while college coaches and administrators got rich, we rationalized to ourselves the merits of amateurism and kept on watching.

When the players started making money from NIL deals, and that combined with the transfer portal to usher in an era of free agency, many of us worried about how it might affect fan interest. But we still kept watching.

Geography used to matter in how conferences were constructed. Until it didn’t.

Traditional rivalries and bowl games were believed to be an essential fabric of the sport. Until they weren’t.

Meanwhile, the only thing that really mattered to the powers that be was money. But we all held our noses, rolled our eyes, gnashed our teeth, and then kept on watching.

It’s a testament to how much we all love college football. It’s why we keep coming back, no matter how many times the leaders of the sport fail us. It’s why we always keep watching.

But after what the College Football Playoff Committee did on Sunday — and after watching how ESPN’s top personalities have been laying the foundation for this charade for weeks — I’m more concerned about the future of this sport than ever. And concerned probably isn’t a strong enough word.

I fear we might have reached a tipping point.

Yes, it was Florida State that got screwed in this instance. But Florida State fans aren’t the only ones who should be worried.

What the CFP Committee did by leaving out an undefeated Power 5 champion Florida State team is tell us that they’re going to do whatever they please when it comes to determining the playoff field — and nothing else matters. And since television partners ESPN and FOX are the ones paying the bills, their interests are going to be protected at all costs.

That means the SEC and the Big Ten are going to be taken care of, and the rest of the college football world can fight over the scraps.

Which is why I’m not going to spend a lot of time here pleading Florida State’s case for making the playoff. That’s not worth my time, or yours. Because the harsh reality is, I believe the fix has been in for weeks, if not longer.

I am convinced that if everything else in college football played out exactly like it did, that Florida State was going to be kept out of the playoff even if Jordan Travis had remained healthy.

If you don’t believe me, go back and watch ESPN’s programming in the weeks before Travis was injured. Watch “College GameDay.” Watch the CFP selection committee’s shows.

They have been moving the goalposts for Florida State, and holding FSU to a different standard than other contenders, since before the first CFP rankings were released. Specifically, go watch this GameDay clip from Nov. 18. This was the morning of the North Alabama game — before Travis got hurt.

We tried throwing our hats in the ring for some CFP Chaos Scenarios 🤔🤣#CollegeGameDay pic.twitter.com/n3lJuTmRzW

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) November 18, 2023

I remember watching this live and not believing what I was seeing.

Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis and company were not merely making the case for a one-loss Alabama team and a one-loss Texas team to make the playoff over an undefeated Florida State back then, they were completely dismissing the Seminoles. Travis getting injured that night only gave them more ammunition.

Why would they do that?

I think the powers that be realized this was not a great Georgia team and there was a decent chance the Bulldogs wouldn’t get through 13 games without a loss.

They played a very weak out-of-conference schedule, and they didn’t look outstanding in several of their wins. So unless ESPN used its bully pulpit to start discrediting Florida State, there was a chance the playoff was going to consist of an undefeated Big Ten champ (Michigan), an undefeated Pac-12 champ (Washington), an undefeated ACC champ (FSU), and then a really difficult decision for the final spot … and perhaps no SEC participant.

If Georgia had won on Saturday night against Alabama and finished 13-0, I think there’s a chance Florida State would have made it in as one of four undefeated conference champions. Alabama would have been knocked out with two losses, and suddenly Texas’ win over the Crimson Tide wouldn’t have carried as much weight.

But once the Bulldogs lost, that opened the door for both the Longhorns and Tide to leapfrog Florida State. And we should have all seen it coming. Because ESPN clearly did not want the College Football Playoff to take place without at least one team from the SEC.

We’re talking about more than a month’s worth of television programming — from now through the middle of January — and it would be costly to ESPN to leave out the goose that lays its golden egg.

Now, whether there were clandestine directives given directly to committee members, or those committee members took their cues from the talking points from Herbstreit, et al, I don’t know. But either way, this is not just Florida State’s problem. It should be a five-alarm warning for every school not affiliated with the SEC or Big Ten.

If they didn’t know it before, they certainly should now. If you’re not in one of those two conferences, your access to the College Football Playoff — and a chance to win your sport’s national championship — is going to be extremely limited.

And don’t for a second believe that anything is going to significantly change when they move to a 12-team playoff in 2024. Just look at this year’s final rankings … 11 of the top 12 schools (everyone not named Florida State) either resides in the SEC or Big Ten now, or they will soon. Current Pac-12 schools Oregon and Washington are heading to the B1G, and current Big 12 schools Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC.

So while the ACC champion will essentially be assured of a spot in the 12-team playoff (the five highest-ranked conference champions are getting in), what are the chances the runner-up makes it too? What about second or third teams from the Big 12?

Do results on the field even matter? Or is just going to be the annual SEC/Big Ten Invitational?

I don’t want to be overly dramatic — and I don’t want to focus specifically on Florida State, because I think there’s a strong chance the Seminoles end up in one of those two conferences before long — but this feels like a watershed moment for college football.

Not only have countless athletes, journalists and other media types railed against the CFP Committee’s snubbing of Florida State over the last 24 to 36 hours, but U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and other politicians are calling for details for how the selections were made.

Nobody wants to believe the sport is rigged. But it’s difficult to ignore what we’ve all watched take place.

“Today, I write to demand total transparency from the Committee regarding how this decision was reached and what factors may have been at play in reaching this outcome,” Scott wrote.

He went on to request text messages and other electronic communication between committee members, as well as text messages and communications between committee members and ESPN employees as well as with SEC employees.

I don’t know where all of that will lead. Whether Scott is simply pandering to voters in future elections, or whether Congress will actually take a closer look at the sport.

We can only hope something substantial happens. That real questions are asked, and real answers are required.

It won’t fix things for this 2023 Florida State football team. That injustice has been done, and it won’t be reversed.

But maybe, just maybe, someone can save this sport from itself.

Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at [email protected].

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.