College Football Playoff: Winners and losers from a roiling bracket reveal and bowl selection day

Whether it was intentional or not maybe not the College Football Playoff selection committee ultimately acted out of self-preservation Sunday with the reveal of the field generally and the seven at-large teams specifically Alabama made the cut with the No seed So did No Miami They were the final two at-large teams selected but by far the most of fundamental not because they necessarily deserved bids at the expense of Notre Dame but because of the collateral damage that would have accompanied their exclusion Had Miami been ranked behind the Irish even though their resumes were comparable and the Hurricanes won the head-to-head matchup the committee would have lost immense credibility What s more plenty of powerhouse schools would have reconsidered the high-profile duels that energize the season s opening weeks Why menace a loss when a triumph doesn t matter Had Alabama been knocked out of the field for losing the SEC championship meeting to Georgia after the Crimson Tide beat the Bulldogs during the regular season in Athens no less the committee would have placed its own existence in jeopardy After all the committee serves at the discretion of the FBS commissioners and in particular the SEC s Greg Sankey and the Big Ten s Tony Petitti who control the format for the CFP starting next year Both commissioners are skeptical of the selection process by nature and experience Excluding the No seed in the SEC championship but including three teams Texas A M Mississippi and Oklahoma that did not qualify for the event might have created a DEFCON situation at SEC HQ In this incident the end justifies the means even if the means were messy and confusing stocked with contradictions and obfuscation With the choice to include Alabama and Miami and exclude Notre Dame which doesn t have a conference the committee opted to value head-to-head results and regular-season success two pillars of the sport s competitive process This was the best bracket for the committee to ensure that the committee endures so let s consider it one of the biggest winners from selection day Here are others along with an equivalent number of losers Winner The SEC The conference collected five bids two more than its rival the Big Ten to satisfy a membership ravenous for bids after the selection process did not unfold as planned Commissioner Greg Sankey s offseason push for more emphasis on schedule strength and quality wins worked as designed unless you re Texas and Vanderbilt Loser Notre Dame The head-to-head loss to Miami only became the final straw because Notre Dame s schedule was heavy on lightweights Had the Irish beaten one or two more ranked teams they would not have been paired in a resume showdown with the Hurricanes in the first place It s the blessing and the curse of Notre Dame s scheduling partnership with the weak ACC Regardless the Irish were so upset about the exclusion that they declined a bowl invitation Winners CFP expansion proponents Unlike last year which produced a weak bubble several worthy teams were left out of the field The list starts with Notre Dame but includes Texas and Vanderbilt as well The CFP management committee has approximately six weeks to decide whether to expand the field to teams for Loser The Big Ten The conference s top-heavy middle-light nature was evident all season and exposed for the world to see by the committee rankings Indiana Ohio State and Oregon grabbed three of the top five seeds but that s it There are no other Big Ten teams in the field Winner The Big Ten Unless Oregon loses to James Madison the conference is guaranteed to have three quarterfinalists At least two and perhaps all three will be favored to advance to the semifinals Loser Weekly CFP rankings The Notre Dame-Miami situation in which the Irish were ranked above the Hurricanes for five weeks before they flipped positions after both were idle exposed ESPN s weekly shows for the sham they are Winner ESPN Those same rankings serve the arrangement s purpose brilliantly placing it at the narrative center of the second-most popular sport in the country for more than a month Loser Rematches The opening round will feature two repeats from the regular season with Alabama-Oklahoma and Mississippi-Tulane To a certain extent rematches are unavoidable with a -team field But we help the committee tweaking the process to limit s to the greatest extent doable Winner The Group of Five When the current format was crafted a sparse years ago scarce could have reasonably foreseen a scenario in which the collection of second-tier conferences would snag two bids and one power conference champion would get shoved aside But for the sake of G- credibility either Tulane or James Madison requirements to show it belongs Loser USC Another playoff without the Trojans that s in a row if you re scoring at home More stunning Indiana has qualified for the CFP twice before USC makes its initial appearance Winner The Billionaire Bowl Assuming Oregon beats James Madison in the opening round the Ducks will advance to face No Texas Tech in the quarterfinals a matchup of well-funded rosters courtesy of Phil Knight and Cody Campbell Losers Mississippi and Texas A M Once it became clear Ohio State and Georgia would be the No and seeds paired on the same side of the bracket the No and spots emerged as the toughest for the four at-large teams hosting opening-round games Good luck to the Rebels and Aggies with those twin behemoths looming in the quarterfinals and beyond Winner The ACC The image hit that comes with its champion Duke missing the playoff isn t nearly as great as the optical nightmare that would have emerged if Miami had not squeezed into the field In this instance the lesser of two evils is a massive mastery for the beleaguered conference Loser BYU Yes the Cougars were punished for the blowout loss to Texas Tech in the Big championship while Alabama was not dinged for its lopsided loss to Georgia in the SEC version But those situations aren t apples-to-apples The Crimson Tide lost to an opponent it defeated on the road earlier in the season the Cougars were spanked twice by the Red Raiders combined number TTU BYU Despite all the outcry the Cougars matter for inclusion was fairly weak Winner Indiana The Hoosiers edged Ohio State in the Big Ten championship contest to claim their first conference title since and the No seed thereby dropping the Buckeyes into the No spot and a semifinal matchup against Georgia that could be the best championship of the tournament Loser Losses The committee declared in August that changes to the selection process would reduce the impact of quality losses then didn t follow its own guidelines Nine of the top teams are ranked in order of losses The exception is Alabama - which finished ahead of Miami - Winner The NFL The playoff networks and time slots speak volumes ESPN farmed out to TNT the opening-round games Tulane-Mississippi and Oregon-James Madison that run concurrently with the NFL broadcasts on Dec and scheduled the best matchups Oklahoma-Alabama and Miami-Texas A M for slots that are unopposed Related Articles Final Pac- power rankings Boise State vaults SDSU for fake title CFP forecast Committee must shun Notre Dame Miami or Alabama Recruiting winners and losers USC BYU Oregon thrive Colorado struggles WSU coaching search Brent Vigen Jonathan Smith and a plan for the future Mailbag ABC dominates TV ratings CFP scenarios the ACC nightmare and more Loser Penn State From No in the preseason rankings to an interim coach the Nittany Lions - could never have scripted the season that unfolded The Pinstripe Bowl against preseason No Clemson is an appropriate destination Winner Las Vegas Bowl A solid matchup with Utah facing Nebraska could turn into appointment viewing if Utes coach Kyle Whittingham announces the contest will be his last which is certainly our expectation Loser Texas CFP exclusion is just one component of a ghastly situation for the Longhorns who must endure watching their rival Oklahoma and their other rival Texas A M and their second-tier rival Texas Tech all participate in the playoff The football gods designed a special place in postseason hell for Texas Winner The new Pac- The future conference s bowl-eligible teams drew several juicy assignments including Boise State s duel with Washington in the LA Bowl and Washington State against Utah State as an intra-conference matchup in the Potato Bowl Loser Washington Had we informed UW fans on Aug that the Huskies would win eight games and finish the season in SoFi Stadium against the Mountain West champion a great number of likely would have shrugged Had we given fans that same endgame on Oct when UW was - they would have curled up in the fetal position Winner Cure Bowl The matchup of South Florida and Old Dominion stands as an under-the-radar gem within the pre-Christmas lineup Loser Orange Bowl The presumptive showdown featuring No Oregon and No Texas Tech matches teams from distant campuses that lack large alumni bases in South Florida Winner The Hawaii Bowl It doesn t get much better for bowl executives than a visiting club Cal whose starting quarterback Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele grew up miles from the stadium Send suggestions comments and tips confidentiality guaranteed to wilnerhotline bayareanewsgroup com or call - - Follow me on the social media platform X WilnerHotline