The College Football Playoff bracket is officially revealed and there will be conversations about this Selection Sunday for a long time. The committee stunned everyone on Sunday Afternoon as they picked the Miami Hurricanes and Alabama Crimson Tide over Notre Dame despite the Fighting Irish being in the field for most of the season.
Where the committee was truly put in a tough place was with the way that the ACC played out this season. Duke won the conference with 5 losses, which meant the committee had to turn to a second Group of 5 team to fill one of the conference championship bids.
If the Miami Hurricanes, who stole the final at-large bid, played for the conference championship, we most likely would get a much better Playoff with both the Hurricanes and Notre Dame in the field.
Nick Saban blames the Group of 5 for the broken system
As ESPN tried to figure out why the current system is so broken, Nick Saban took aim at the Group of 5 programs.
"I think that you are going to have two teams in the Playoff no disrespect to the Group of 5 that are nowhere near ranked as highly as some teams that are much better than them. And I think that's maybe something that we can learn from this, because to me this has to be devastating for Notre Dame's team. "Nick Saban
Including the Group of 5 automatically doesn't make a ton of sense, especially in a year like this season. When Boise State made the Playoff last year, they deserved to be in, as they clearly could test Power 4 teams. This season, we've already seen Ole Miss blow out Tulane and James Madison lose by two scores to a Louisville team outside the Top 25.
This offseason, the conference commissioners are going to meet to try and expand the College Football Playoff field, and this year's results are going to be a massive talking point. The Group of 5 will always be represented, but the committee is going to need to find a way to ensure they don't get in a place like they were this season.