And…breathe. What a Saturday the CFB gods bestowed upon us. Upsets, skirmishes, walk-off TDs- rivalry weekend lived up to the billing. Now that the dust has begun to settle on all that controversy from the gridiron, the mantle has been taken by discourse off it. 

The climax of the regular season legitimized the CFP cases of some schools and ceased those of a plethora of others. However, there is still a cluster in the dark. Bulldogs legend and football savant David Pollack shed light on these teams. Some are on the periphery on the outside, others looking over their shoulder from within.

David Pollack took to his namesake YouTube channel in the aftermath of events to dissect the CFP picture. To put it straight, Pollack believes that 11 of the 12 spots aren’t up for discretion- either due to the rankings or the conference championship auto-bids. That leaves, according to him, 5 teams vying for that final spot. David Pollack believes one of those 5 teams should not be under consideration. 

“If we’re doing this correctly, here’s the way I would look at it. Miami lost two of their last three games. Do they deserve to be in the college football playoff?” Pollack questioned as he laid the proverbial hammer on the Canes. ”They finished leaking oil, they didn’t finish rising”, he said. 

Pollack laid forth the adversaries in the mixer with Miami. He said,”South Carolina finished with six straight wins, and you’re going to tell me you’re going to put in Miami… that’s the part that I think is going to be interesting. Then, how [will] you stack up Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina who all beat each other? They all beat each other, and South Carolina got a big win, according to the committee this week”. 

Reading between the lines, one can assume David Pollack perhaps believes it’s South Carolina that should be highest on the committee’s radar. However, he proceeded to drop a scenario that would turn this whole exercise futile. 

One scenario exists which shall end the hopes of the 9-3 SEC teams

An Orange mist descended on the ACC on Saturday, and it neutralised the Hurricanes. Syracuse’s win over Miami didn’t just damage the Canes’ hopes. It breathed life into another orange outfit. Clemson looked dead in the water after losing to South Carolina earlier in the day. As the chips fell, it turned out the Tigers still had a pulse. In fact, they now seemingly control the fate of Bama, Ole Miss and SCal as well.

Dabo Swinney and Clemson have backdoored a trip to Charlotte to play the ACC Championship game. Now the loss to the Gamecocks means they’ll fall from no.12 and out of the race via the rankings. However, if they beat SMU for the ACC throne, they’ll get into the CFP. Thus becoming the “12th team”, according to David Pollack. “If you’re on the bubble and you want your team to get in, you’re cheering hard against Clemson”, he said.

The CFP committee perhaps would be averse to that. They may want Clemson to win, just so that this impossible decision is taken out of their hands. Who the committee will pick to be that 12th team will have huge implications. Not only in the present, but for the future as well. It will set a precedent in the first iteration of the 12-team playoff that will have to be abided by going forward. If a 9-3 SEC team is snuck in this year, that will become a tangible possibility that opens a whole new can of worms for years to come. Nobody envies the committee at this juncture.