Yahoo Sports Alabama and South Carolina among the biggest College Football Playoff snubs
The College Football Playoff bracket reveal on Sunday didn't leave too many surprises.
Big Ten champion Oregon locked up the No. 1 seed, SEC champion Georgia earned the No. 2 seed while No. 3 seed Boise State and No. 4 seed Arizona Statefinished off the first-round byes. But Sunday's 12-team reveal wasn't without some drama. Even with a dozen teams in the playoff field, the selection committee couldn't avoid a few snubs.
These were them most egregious.
College Football Playoff: See the inaugural 12-team bracket for the 2024-25 national title
South Carolina Gamecocks
It's hard to find a fanbase with a bigger gripe than South Carolina — at least as far as three-loss teams are concerned.
Prior to championship week, selection committee chair Warde Manuel made clear that teams who were not playing in Week 15 would not be re-evaluated based on what happens to common opponents playing conference title games. Which means that the Gamecocks — ranked No. 14 on Tuesday after beating Clemson on the road — received no extra credit after Clemson defeated No. 8 SMU in the ACC championship game Saturday night.
South Carolina's resume features wins over then-No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 23 Missouri and No. 12 Clemson with one-possession losses to then-No. 16 LSU and No. 7 Alabama by a combined 29 points. A blowout loss to then-No. 12 Ole Miss, 27-3, is the biggest blemish on the Gamecocks' resume.
According to ESPN's Football Power Index, the Gamecocks played the 15th-strongest schedule this season. That still wasn't enough based on the committee's previously stated criteria and it's hard to fault South Carolina's griping.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Whether or not you feel Alabama was snubbed may depend on how you feel about the SEC overall.
Despite being ranked No. 11 by the selection committee, the Tide were left out thanks to Clemson winning the ACC and SMU remaining in the rankings despite the title game loss.
Naturally, SEC fans — and especially Nick Saban — were furious with the outcome. The Tide's resume includes notable wins over No. 2 Georgia, No. 21 Missouri, No. 15 LSU and South Carolina.
It also includes losses to unranked Vanderbilt and Oklahoma as well as No. 11 Tennessee. The committee decided those losses do, in fact, just mean more.
Miami Hurricanes
Miami (10-2) may have benefitted from some crucial early-season calls that inflated their resume, but the Hurricanes getting left out with only two losses is still tough for the program.
Despite wins over ACC contenders like Cal, Louisville and Duke, Miami simply did not have a strong enough finish down the stretch to convince the committee it was worthy of the playoff.
Losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse over the last three weeks knocked the Hurricanes out of the conference title game and effectively ended Miami's path to the playoff.
Just another disaster of an ending for a Mario Cristobal team.
Army Black Knights
It appears the selection committee has no respect for the troops.
After winning the AAC in a clear and convincing fashion with a 35-14 victory over Tulane in the conference title game, the Black Knights didn't even sniff the playoff bracket.
Instead, Army finished ranked outside the top 12despite an 11-1 record with the only loss coming at the hands of No. 6 Notre Dame, 49-14, at Yankee Stadium. Now, did Army have a particularly strong schedule? Not exactly, no. The Black Knights' slate was ranked 94th by ESPN.
But for a committee that clearly placed an emphasis on conference championship games this year, there wasn't much of a reward for Army — outside of the AAC trophy, of course.
More NCAAF!
Alabama missed the College Football Playoff and fans were thrilled the committee did the right thing
See the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff bracket for the 2024-25 national title
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Alabama and South Carolina among the biggest College Football Playoff snubs
