Who deserves the honor of being the No. 4 team in the College Football Playoff, Notre Dame or Texas A&M?
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We know who will be the top three in the final standings of college football playoffs.
Alabama will be No. 1, Clemson and Ohio State will surely be No. 2 and No. 3, in that order, and No. 4 will be …
And this is the drama.
Notre Dame and Texas A&M are the two most likely options for site no. 4, and both were saved because Florida couldn’t get Alabama to the SEC championship, which at least would have made things interesting. It also helped the general cause that USC lost the Pac-12 Championship and Cincinnati was meh in the American Athletic Conference Championship.
So with that in mind, let’s make both candidates argue. It’s 2020, so of course it’s done with a Zoom call …
Mother of God: No debate. We beat Clemson. We won ten games. We had a tough day against the Tigers when they ran at maximum efficiency, and we should get our best schedule. We have the good victories. You don’t.
Texas A&M: Dude, you trucked 34-10, and it wasn’t even that close. Do you think America has the slightest interest in seeing you play in Alabama?
Mother of God: You think America has the slightest interest in seeing you to play in Alabama again? You already did. It was horrible.
Texas A&M: Yes, we are back in week 2 for us on October 3rd. We needed a little to warm up and we got the passing game to move for 335 yards and …
Mother of God: You lost 52-24. Wait, all that needs to warm up. Are we supposed to apologize for beating Vanderbilt 17-12 at the opening?
Texas A&M: Notre Dame 27, Duke 13. This was your opener. Oh yeah, and that 12-7 win over Louisville was a classic. Can we move on now? We are now a different team, stronger and better. We’re lined up in a six-game winning streak, we’ve won our last five double-digit games after beating Florida and …
Mother of God: And what? What did you gain? That 20-7 win over LSU made the world an inferior place and beat Auburn. Whooop-dee-doo. Again, we beat Clemson …
Texas A&M: Yes, without Trevor Lawrence.
Mother of God: But DJ Uiagalelei will be so good and …
Texas A&M: A true freshman quarterback let you fly for over 400 yards and do you think you’ll do anything against Alabama’s passing game?
Mother of God: If you let me finish, when Clemson ranks No. 2 in the final rankings, we’ll officially have the best win of the 2020 college football season. You don’t have any, do you, Tex?
Texas A&M: No, we are only the second best team in the best college football conference and our only loss was for the No. 1 team on the road. Should we be considered number 2 in the ranking and discuss the 4th?
(appears on the call) Cincinnati: Hey guys, what’s up?
Mother of God: How did you receive this call?
Cincinnati: We heard you talking about who should be number 4 and we went 9-0 with an American Athletic Conference Championship and …
Texas A&M: I’m sorry, you cut. To what, championship?
Cincinnati: American Athle …
Texas A&M: And who did you play in this championship … Alabama? Oklahoma? Ohio State …
Cincinnati: Tulsa!
Mother of God: Oh Tulsa … super, super … so of course with everything in the line and style points that means the world to a team that didn’t play a Power Five team, why did you win, 50, 60?
Cincinnati: 27-24 in an exciting timeless field goal, and …
(Cincinnati feed is cut and killed)
Texas A&M: (silent)
Mother of God: (silent)
Texas A&M: Where were we?
Mother of God: Look, you’re fine and we faced Clemson in the ACC title game, but we have the lines that can hold up, we have the experience and we can slow things down like you. . There were a few light wins along the way, but we won four road games in a five-game stretch, which ended in a win over North Carolina. Winning at Auburn is nice, but this road victory against the Tar Heels will make our heads spin.
Texas A&M: Yes, you have the style we like: the game recognizes the game in terms of possession, tempo and fantastic play, but we kept the ball for over 44 minutes against Tennessee, our scores are not usually exploded in part because of our design and again the SEC factor has to play A kind of role here.
Mother of God: Yes, but 8-1 is not 10-1 and, again, we have the great victory you don’t get …
Texas A&M: Clemson wasn’t really hurt defensively and again, wasn’t Lawrence?
Mother of God: Yes, but …
Texas A&M: And I know this isn’t supposed to matter, but it’s not like you’ve distinguished yourself exactly from the eldest of the big boys over the years in the bowling season. We’ve seen what you can do and it’s beautiful, but there’s a hard ceiling that you obviously can’t break. We are rolling here under a national championship head coach. Look at what we’re about to do while we’re on the verge of something special.
Mother of God: We are better than you think. We could have the style and the potential to give Alabama a problem. Again, we had a bad day in Charlotte, but our lines are really that good, our running defense is so much better than it looked this time against the Tigers and we have a feeling we can possibly break the tide in our mouths. a little better than even you. In addition, we …
Cincinnati (with a mustache and fake sunglasses, speaking in a low voice): Ah, how am I HERE? You must have pressed the wrong button. Hey, how do I feel about this great Group of Five program that …
Texas A&M: Hey, Irish, good luck in the Orange Bowl … you’ll need against one of the best SEC teams.
Mother of God: Good luck against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl … they’ve already found out.
So what will really happen?
The committee is sure to put Notre Dame at 4 p.m.
Cincinnati has neither the calendar nor the big wins. Had he crushed Tulsa on the 30th, there would have been a strong argument to give the group of five a chance, as Texas A&M and Notre Dame have already lost hugely against two of the playoff teams. But no, that doesn’t happen.
There will also be at least one discussion about the state of Ohio. The 6-0 is nice, and the Buckeyes were missing players, but they have only faced two teams in agreement this year and have struggled to survive against both. We don’t waste time with that, though.
The college football playoffs committee had something interesting for the Buckeyes from the start, and it sure won’t run out now, there’s no chance the undefeated Big Ten champion isn’t in that matter.
It’s not fair for Texas A&M, considering that if this was a normal year with a normal schedule, most teams on their roster would have been at least 0.500 or better thanks to several wins outside the conference, but that’s the ‘agreement.
Notre Dame has more wins. His best win over Clemson is better than A&M’s over Florida, and his second-best win over North Carolina is stronger (at least for the PCP rankings) than A&M’s second-best win over Auburn.
The two ugly losses will cancel each other out.
There’s no real right or wrong answer here: none should really be in the tournament, but anyone can argue about Ohio State. You have to leave out a team.
Let it be fuel for a growing Texas A&M program that is about to be a powerhouse that should be in contention for college football playoffs on a regular basis.
Expect it to be Notre Dame Vs. Alabama in the Sugar, and Clemson vs. Ohio State in what the hell calls AT&T Stadium.