“Way to keep us on the edge of our seats committee… Riveting.” The entire 12-team bracket has started a whole new rage between fans, coaches, and analysts. Like what do you mean Alabama wasn’t in the playoff? How could this happen? THEY LOST 3 GAMES. That’s how. When Lane Kiffin put out his entire take on Indiana against Notre Dame or SMU against Penn State, it raised quite the point. Like, did Lane Kiffin expect an Ole Miss team that threw the game against an LSU team with a QB who loves throwing more pick 6s than touchdowns and a Florida team that is basically surviving off of its backup QB, to be in the playoffs?

“Ever since the committee gave us the 12-team playoff, he has been chirping.” Joel Klatt was right. We get it. Some SEC teams didn’t make the cut, but this entire delusional opinion that if SEC teams didn’t make it, then Big 10 or ACC champs don’t deserve a shot is plain dumb. He-k Kiffin ain’t the only one who was blasting away. Our “beloved” Kirk Herbstreit also joined the march. “It was (Indiana) not a team that should’ve been on the field when you consider other teams,” Kirk had brought up. Why? This was Curt Cignetti’s first run with the Hoosiers and he took the boys to the first-round playoff games with a 11-win run. In what world do they not “deserve” to be there?

“The answer is not SMU, and Indiana shouldn’t have been in. The answer is blowouts happen in college football.” It is as simple as that, and Until Saturday didn’t skip a beat while talking about this. Vols were the superior team when compared to Ole Miss or even Alabama to a certain extent. Also Vols’ are sure as shot better at football than Indiana and SMU as well. But when they got blown out by OSU, did Kiffin or Herbie tweet anything out?

This, right here, is the problem. We get the entire debate on “strength of schedule” and all that “they didn’t face a good team” debate, but it still won’t change the fact that a 3-loss team should not be in the playoff talk. If we assume that SMU probably got their 11 wins by playing against “weak teams” and when James Franklin and Co. took them by their throat, they couldn’t do anything, they still managed to scrape 10 points against a team that was leagues better than them.

And this is it. Sometimes, you get blown out, and it is fine. He-k QB Nico Iamaleava had around 100 yards. Yes. 100 yards. Against Bucks and Josh Heupel‘s boys couldn’t run the football even if their lives depended on it. They got destroyed by Ohio State. Bring in the SOS debate, and you will see that the Vols faced more tough competition than the Buckeyes in their 2024 regular season.

Still, they lost to a team that had their HC on a hot seat after their 4th consecutive loss to a weak Michigan. Playing around hypothetical scenarios is cowardly. In an era of college football where a Bama team can be blown out by a 5-loss Oklahoma team, anything can happen and people should just accept it.

Surviving on Hypotheticals

Imagine resorting to superstition after losing to Florida and then going on to blast SMU and Indiana. We still won’t forget that Lane Kiffin straight up said that they were “jinxed” going into the Gators game. Like, what do you even mean?

Your QB is throwing the football over to the Gators’ defense instead of the Ole Miss WR who is literally standing in the endzone and you say you were jinxed? No. It was bad play-calling. Your QB wasn’t in the right mindset and your defense was throwing the entire game by allowing Elijhah Badger and Montrell Johson Jr. to run the football with ease.

“This idea that he was going to continue to play these hypothetical games. I just get frustrated,” Klatt had pointed out while talking about Kiffin’s jab at the committee. If anything, calling Lane out was the perfect route. To continue to survive off of these hypothetical scenarios is not gonna help the team get better at football.

Whoever is on that 12-team bracket got their seat fair and square. If your favorite team has 3 losses this season, they shouldn’t even be in the playoff talk. Period.