Bohls: Finally, the CFP gets it right and gives TCU its shot after Big 12 title game loss
Irony won on Sunday.
Eight years ago, TCU was left out of the College Football Playoff after it won big and was a champion.
On Sunday, TCU rightfully got in after it lost.
Go figure.
Only in a topsy-turvy college football world can we see such happen. But we all remember when the Horned Frogs were excluded from the four-team CFP in 2014 even though they were big winners, Big 12 co-champions coming off a 55-3 explosion against Iowa State and ridiculously fell from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final rankings.
Now the Horned Frogs’ national championship hopes are rekindled despite their loss in overtime to Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game Saturday.
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Sure, more goes into it because the Big 12 hurt itself in 2014 when it failed to establish a distinct, single champion but instead had a shared title between TCU and Baylor. And TCU won favor this time by at least playing in the league title game when Ohio State wasn’t even in its Big Ten championship contest.
The Horned Frogs and Buckeyes incidentally become the fifth and sixth teams to reach the Final Four without winning their league title. TCU will meet Michigan in one semifinal, with No. 1 Georgia to face Ohio State in the other.
TCU, however, becomes the first team from the state of Texas to reach the CFP and got in on its own merits, no matter what spoilsport Chris Simms thinks. The former Longhorns quarterback took a huge shot at TCU when he tweeted, “The Big 12 sucks, and I played in the Big 12. I know what the resumes are, but the middle class of the SEC would win the Big 12.”
Lots to unpack there.
The Big 12 does not suck. TCU is damn good. So is Kansas State. Texas is much improved and came within an eyelash of knocking off then-No. 1 Alabama. Baylor beat Ole Miss in last year’s Sugar Bowl.
The middle of the SEC would win the Big 12? Really?
The sixth- through 10th-place teams in the 14-team SEC are Ole Miss, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri and Arkansas. None was better than the 8-4 Rebels, who faded badly. Those other four teams defined average this season.
Listen, the SEC is, has been and will continue to be the premier league in college football, but we also know it’s been a very top-heavy conference.
And, yes, Chris, you did play in the Big 12, and you were horrible in the biggest games, notably Oklahoma in Octobers and Colorado in the title game, when you had four turnovers and were finally, mercifully benched. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across a former Longhorn who appreciated his time in the program or the school itself less than Simms. But we digress.
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For now, the CFP blueprint remains the same. Go undefeated or lose only one game. If you lose one game, you’d better have a nice nonconference win (Ohio State over Notre Dame) and be a brand name or have already beaten that one team that beat you (TCU-Kansas State).
Of course, we should all rush out and buy Hallmark sympathy cards for Nick Saban, who lobbied hard but in vain over the weekend for his mistreated, 10-2 Crimson Tide. No two-loss team has made the CFP, but that will soon change with the adoption of the 12-team format starting in 2024.
Before we heap too much applause on the 13-member CFP selection committee for getting it right this year, however, let’s point out that the 12-1 Horned Frogs probably got in because likely Final Four invitee USC also fell in its conference championship game, to Utah, creating an additional opening that Ohio State conveniently filled.
Had the Trojans won the Pac-12 title, they would have gotten a Final Four bid and the Horned Frogs, in losing to Kansas State in an overtime thriller, would have had to sweat out the decision and possibly lost out to the blue-blood Buckeyes.
The bet here is TCU would have bowed to Ohio State because, well, it’s Ohio State and both teams had one loss. But the Buckeyes were felled by Michigan, the No. 2 team in Sunday’s CFP rankings, while the Horned Frogs lost to Kansas State, which wasn’t even considered for the CFP.
So thank your lucky stars, TCU, and that includes quarterback Max Duggan, who should be in line to win all sorts of awards.
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Even more interesting, Sonny Dykes’ club was unranked in all the national preseason polls and was picked to finish seventh in the 10-team Big 12.
In the first Associated Press poll, Ohio State was picked second, defending national champion Georgia was third and Michigan came in eighth. TCU was nowhere to be found, not in the Top 25 and not even among the 47 teams that were ranked or received votes. The Big 12 was well-represented by Oklahoma (ninth), Baylor (10th) and Oklahoma State (12th), and Texas was 27th in the voting.
Kansas State, the eventual Big 12 champion? The Wildcats started the season 38th.
But that was in August, when nothing was clear. It’s now December, and the committee clearly got it right.
Kirk Bohls' ballot
1. Georgia
2. Michigan
3. TCU
4. Ohio State
5. Tennessee
6. Alabama
7. Kansas State
8. Clemson
9. Utah
10. USC
11. Penn State
12. Washington
13. Oregon State
14. Oregon
15. South Carolina
16. Tulane
17. Florida State
18. LSU
19. Texas
20. Notre Dame
21. North Carolina State
22. UTSA
23. UCLA
24. Troy
25. Fresno State
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: TCU proves it can win for losing, advances to CFP Final Four
