Occupy TCU, Baylor

A lot of folks are upset that the Horned Frogs weren’t invited to the big dance, the inaugural College Football Playoff. Their pain is palpable. TCU went 11-1, their only loss coming on a horrible pass interference call in the waning moments of the game against Big 12 Conference rivals Baylor, who also went 11-1 (the loss was against West Virginia) and ended up No. 5 in the final poll, one spot ahead of TCU. Baylor fans are also perturbed. Their Bears also have been left out of the playoff. And while there’s no doubt that TCU and Baylor could run with No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Florida State, and No. 4 Ohio State, everyone has to realize that, based on the highly scientific metrics that have determined the rankings (a 12-person committee), neither the Frogs nor the Bears have any real business being part of the conversation.

The biggest problem may be that the Big 12 is the only Power 5 conference (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) that doesn’t have a championship game. The Big 12 can’t. It has only 10 teams, and the NCAA requires a minimum of 12 for a conference championship game. The discussion should end there. Alabama, Oregon, FSU, and OSU are all conference champs. “We were presented with co-champions,” committee chairman Jeff Long told ESPN. “In the other situations, we had definitive champions for that conference.”

And yet even if they weren’t, all four playoff teams would still be more than worthy –– and perhaps more worthy than TCU or Baylor –– to battle for the national championship. Ohio State had a great year (12-1) despite losing its top two quarterbacks, its only loss coming on Week 2 of the season, and FSU, while playing in the crappy ACC, is the only undefeated playoff team (13-0). Oregon (12-1) beat four top 20 opponents, handily, and Alabama is Alabama. After losing by only a touchdown to Ole Miss in the fifth game of the season (23-17), the Crimson Tide steamrolled through the rest of their schedule in by far the toughest conference in all of college football. Basically, the average two-loss SEC West team would be a champion in any other conference, though there was chatter as recently as last month about an SEC-free playoff. Scandalous!

Bama’s non-SEC West schedule was also pretty decent: Florida Atlantic, Southern Miss, Western Carolina, and West Virginia. Who did TCU play out of conference? Hmm, let’s see: Minnesota, the worst FCS team in the country, a.k.a. SMU, and … Samford? As in that school in a Mississippi suburb of about 500 that just got a Home Depot last week? And, though the mind reels at the prospect, Baylor’s nonconference schedule was even weaker: that dreadful team from Dallas, Northwestern State, and Buffalo. Horny Toads like to point to that “W” over the 8-5 Golden Gophers as evidence of TCU’s superior strength of schedule, but c’mon –– is there that much difference between having the 45th “toughest” schedule in the nation compared to the 64th? The scheduling of creampuffs shouldn’t surprise anyone. In allowing themselves to get pummeled by big or bigger schools, always in desperation for those almighty “W”’s, little schools get a lot of money, which, in turn, can be used to build the kinds of facilities that attract the kinds of players who would rather go to TCU or Baylor (or Alabama or OSU). Not surprising but pretty sad. Expect tougher nonconference games for both TCU and Baylor in the near future. Well, at least one. And at least semi-tough.

The only pro-TCU/pro-Baylor argument that finds favor with my pinko-commie-bastard heart revolves around money. TCU and Baylor fans claim the NCAA is biased toward big schools, especially for the inaugural playoff, when the NCAA’s credibility and vision will be on the line. Three blowouts would lead to complete and utter chaos and perhaps committee chairman Long’s resignation. And perhaps some bracket expansion. But no duh the NCAA doesn’t want small schools at its coming-out party. Why invite a school that will generate 5,000 ticket sales when you can invite one that will lead to 100 times as many? Plus, ESPN, the NCAA’s College Football Playoff partner, has a bias toward big markets that would be funny if it weren’t so frustrating.

Maybe what we can laugh at is the fact that the students and alumni of the two schools that crank out probably the most Republican voters in the Western hemisphere are whining about the influence of big money on politics. Say it with me now: “TCU/Baylor Fans: The Real 99 Percent.”