College Football Playoff Committee Does Sane Thing, Doesn't Overthink It

We could have saved a lot of time and energy by watching Saturday’s championship games, going to bed, then consuming no content until the final committee rankings were revealed. Every contrarian take and all the breathless Georgia evangelizing by Kirk herbstreit turned out to be moot as sanity prevailed.

It’s Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and  Oklahoma. Just like it should be. And just like it was obvious it would be. The Sooners were behind Georgia and ahead of Ohio State. Georgia lost. Oklahoma beat a better team than Ohio State in a similarly convincing manner. There was no mystery as to what would happen.

At least if you were gleefully living your life outside of the takeosphere, which ratcheted up to a fever pitch these past 12 hours before the most logical result materialized. It obscured — and will continue to obscure as the conversation rages on in coming hours — just how clear-cut this year was compared to others.

Perhaps no season has broken as cleanly as this one. Even 2015, when the four teams were obvious, there was some discussion over seeding. Ohio State, like Michael Scott, was never a serious contender for the fourth position. Georgia only merited tepid discussion thanks to a strong showing. They needed to be addressed within the room, but weren’t legitimate threats to Oklahoma.

While the outside world was trying so desperately to see a zebra, the committee trusted its eyes and identified a horse.