Assuming UGA won vs Bama

Would depend how much that devalued Texas' win over us.

Personally I think they vividly remembered TCU/Georgia and were terrified of getting another one of those games. Alabama's resume was elite enough they could somewhat justify our inclusion even with a loss multiple ways. I think Texas would have probably fallen into the same bucket, but with us falling to #7 or #8 their resume wouldn't be nearly as good as ours ended up.

Still think end of the day they would have put in Texas anyway for the same reason - fear of TCU part 2, but it would have been a tougher sell.

That's hard to say. Texas' resume would have been a little worse; their best win would still have been Alabama, but we'd have been ranked 10th or worse. At that point you're essentially comparing an undefeated P5 champ against a one-loss P5 champ, and that might have been enough to sway the committee to keep FSU at 4.

ETA: Or what everybody else said while I was still typing. Dangit.

This is exactly what I have been saying to friends / family. The committee was embarrassed by last year's Natty. They knew they couldn't allow that again, and then they get faced with an undefeated team playing a back-up QB... and not just a typical back-up, but a back-up for one of the most dynamic QBs in the NCAA. I think last year definitely played a factor in their decision.

Agreed. They really set themselves up with that decision.

I’m speculating here, but the only reason I see as to why they did that is in case FSU were to somehow beat a checked out UGA, it would be a dagger right in the heart of their logic and things would get much worse (which they will anyway if we lose and FSU wins).

Agree completely. I think they were afraid to drop FSU all the way down to #6 though. They shouldn't have been sitting on the same rankings the last 2-3 weeks of the season. They knew that championship week was going to upset their rankings, and they weren't prepared for that.

No, FSU would have been the 4 seed and all the undefeated conference champs would be in.

If Alabama went in, Texas had to go to. They were a package deal.

Yes.

They were never making it once Travis got injured unless they blew put both Florida and Louisville.

It's why this entire reaction is laughable. Alabama isn't the only one that put them out; Texas did too but there isn't no venom headed their way.

quote:

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The biggest self inflicted wound the committee made was putting FSU at #5 and UGA at #6 (along with all the rankings before the last one). It opened the door for "best wasn't really what you meant" when there wasn't even a reason for it.

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It definitely would have eliminated a talking point of a lot of people criticizing the rankings.

However, I tend to agree with the committee in that they did it to quite specifically not make it 100% about best team.

Unlike Bama or Texas, UGA didn't have the resume points of a conference championship and marquee road/neutral win over another Top 6 contender.

Without those it would have made the decision 100% about best perceived team/missing star QB.