Sunday was a day of celebration for many top teams as they saw their names revealed on the field. 12-team College Football Playoff bracket. At-large programs like SMU, Indiana, Tennessee and even Ohio State can breathe a sigh of relief knowing, with certainty, that they will have a chance to play for a national championship.
For all the joy that came with the selection committee’s final rankings, many teams felt burned. It is difficult to quantify pain in a metaphysical sense. There are scales like the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which measures the discomfort caused by various insect bites. Applying this same theory to emotional difficulties is not easy.
But we’re going to do it anyway.
Introducing the “Exclusion Pain Index” (patent pending), which measures the pain some bubble teams feel after being excluded from the College Football Playoff. The index ranges from 1 to 4, being the most painful.
Included are teams that had a compelling case to qualify but didn’t, or teams that once seemed like favorites to secure a spot in the overall, at the very least, before collapsing in the final weeks of the regular season. Either way, there’s plenty of disappointment to be had.
Alabama
Final CFP ranking: 11| Exclusion Pain Index: 4
That doesn’t get much worse than landing at No. 11 in the final rankings and continuing to fall out of the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide might throw daggers at Clemson for stealing a bid, or at the selection committee for choosing to preserve SMU’s playoff status, but in reality, they have no one to blame but themselves -themselves. Yes, they won three games against currently ranked opponents, including a triumph over eventual SEC champion Georgia, but Alabama also fell to two unranked opponents. Its 21-point loss to Oklahoma, which finished the year with a 2-6 SEC record, was glaring. Strength of schedule doesn’t matter when you can’t win the games you’re supposed to win.
Miami
Final CFP ranking: 13 | Exclusion Pain Index: 3
Miami had everything in front of it before the home stretch. The Hurricanes were 9-0 and ranked 4th when the first set of College Football Playoff rankings were released. Led by a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback in Cam Ward and one of the best wide receivers in program history, Xavier Restrepo, the Canes appeared to be a lock for the 12-team bracket. Even after a shocking loss to Georgia Tech on November 9, the ACC championship game was still in sight. Then Miami blew it with a 42-38 loss to Syracuse in the regular season finale. To add insult to injury, the Hurricanes lost their spot in the ACC Championship Game to Clemson, who beat SMU and thus earned a College Football Playoff bid. A difficult pace but, once again, Miami did this to itself.
Ole Mademoiselle
Final CFP ranking: 14 | Exclusion Pain Index: 3
Based on coach Lane Kiffin’s Twitter activity during Selection Sunday, the Rebels are definitely feeling rejected.
Kiffin banged the drum of the schedule all season, even though Ole Miss had the lowest SOS (No. 33, according to ESPN FPI) among SEC teams and still only managed to win nine games . Certainly, the Rebels had arguably the most impressive victory of the year, beating Georgia by 18 points. Ole Miss also gave Kentucky its only win in SEC play and lost in overtime to 8-4 LSU.
South Carolina
Final CFP ranking: 15 | Exclusion Pain Index: 3
South Carolina has had a pretty convincing postseason record. The Gamecocks closed out the regular season on an absolute hot streak, going 6-0 punctuated by two wins against teams currently ranked down the stretch. They also beat Vanderbilt by 21 points and Texas A&M by 24 points, and won against Clemson in a thrilling regular season finale. A week later, the Tigers won the ACC championship game and earned the fifth automatic playoff berth. South Carolina, meanwhile, didn’t come close to qualifying for the group.
BYU
Final CFP ranking: 17 | Exclusion Pain Index: 2
Continuing the theme of winning against playoff teams, BYU set the tone for a once-promising season with an 18-15 win over SMU in week two. The Cougars then reeled off seven straight wins and took a commanding lead in an otherwise chaotic Big. 12 races with a 9-0 record. Eventually, chaos caught up with BYU. Kalani Sitake’s team suffered its first loss of the year against Kansas, which played a spoiler role against a few teams late in the season, then was effectively eliminated from the Big 12 championship game with a loss to Arizona State the following week; the Sun Devils used this BYU victory to catalyze their bid as a playoff team. Still, it was a great turnaround season for BYU as a whole, mitigating some of the damage from its late-season slide.