Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Alabama Football: 3 Reasons Tide deserved their College Football Playoff spot

By Matthew Bartlett

ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 02: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide takes the field prior to their game against the Florida State Seminoles at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 2, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 02: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide takes the field prior to their game against the Florida State Seminoles at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 2, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 4
Next

3. They said no to recency bias

The blind resume is best known for its frequent appearances leading up to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The concept is straightforward enough, strip away the names and just look at the numbers. That’s a nice theory, but it can’t be applied here. The committee knows exactly which names are on the board and no matter how hard they try, they’re only human.

Every member of the committee knows what Nick Saban has done at Alabama. They know he’s created a juggernaut that reloads rather than rebuilds. They know that the Crimson Tide have played in two of the three College Football Playoff National Championship Games.

It would have been hard to fault committee for the suffering from recency bias. Just look at the Heisman trophy race this year. Lamar Jackson has produced a similar if not superior statistical season to his Heisman winning campaign from a year ago, but he’s not even being mentioned among the front-runners for the award. No matter how hard we try and eliminate it, recency bias makes us inherently want different.

Next: Latest 2018 NFL Mock Draft entering Week 14

It’s not 2017 Alabama’s fault that 2016 Alabama and 2015 Alabama were elite teams and they shouldn’t be judged against those squads. It doesn’t matter how this year’s team compares to last year’s team. What matters is whether or not Alabama has earned a spot in the Playoff. They deserved to get in, and they were rewarded.

Home/Alabama Crimson Tide