Finally, we have a Playoff.

The field is set.

We’ve got No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 TCU and No. 4 Ohio State. We do not have Alabama.

Did the selection committee get it right? And what’s some perspective we need to keep in mind?

Let’s dig into all things Playoff with the final 4 set.

1. Yes, they got it right. No, Alabama didn’t deserve to make the Playoff

I’ve been saying for 3 weeks that Alabama’s Playoff path died a painful death in Death Valley. The way this played out was evidence of that. Clemson, Ohio State, TCU and USC all lost in the past 8 days, yet the Tide didn’t have any sort of a path to the Playoff.

Why was Alabama never going to make it into the Playoff? The first 2-loss team to break through wasn’t going to be a non-division champ whose best win was against a 4-loss team. If your argument was “but the close losses!” I’d say, “but the close wins!” This wasn’t a vintage Alabama team. It was an Alabama team thatfffffff had 5 of its 9 games against Power 5 competition decided in the final minute. That’s the issue.

Ohio State got smacked. Once. This was still a team that had 5 wins against Power 5 teams with bowl eligibility (Alabama had 4), and unlike Alabama, it had a win against a current top-10 team (Penn State), which happened on the road.

This notion that “you can’t put a team in the Playoff who gets blown out” ignores the fact that we’ve seen 3 teams make the Playoff after suffering 3-score losses (2017 UGA, 2020 Notre Dame, 2021 Georgia). This is always about quality of wins and quantity of losses.

And for the “who would be favored” discussion, answer me this. Why play the games then? Why actually start a season and use 3 months worth of data? Should we just go based off recruiting rankings? That’s not what determines this. Credit the selection committee for not just going with “brands” and jeopardizing whatever integrity it has left.

2. Did Georgia get punished with an Ohio State draw? Not exactly

Two things can be true at the same time.

One is that if I’m a Georgia fan, I’d rather face TCU than Ohio State. Why? I wonder if Ohio State is about to be 2017 Alabama, which lost a rival game and appeared to be out of the mix, but then played like a team with nothing to lose en route to a title.

But did Ohio State deserve to jump a TCU team who started 12-0? No chance. The Buckeyes going from No. 5 to No. 3 simply by sitting at home while TCU had to play a top-10 team at a neutral sight would’ve been foolish.

Also, I don’t think this was about rewarding Michigan by not forcing the Wolverines to beat Ohio State again. If anything, the selection committee avoided the ratings home run by keeping those teams separate in the semifinal matchups.

Georgia got to face the team with the worst résumé of the top 4 teams. It’s as simple as that. This was about getting the rankings right based on résumé. The selection committee did that.

3. Don’t convince yourself that TCU was a bad 4th quarter from falling out of the top 4

I came into Saturday saying that the Horned Frogs were going to be in the field, regardless of how Saturday against Kansas State played out. Yes, they won a lot of close games. They were also 12-0 with 7 wins against Power 5 teams with bowl eligibility. TCU staying at No. 3 was confirmation that the selection committee grew to respect that résumé.

We also got a little hint from the selection committee that TCU would be safe by sneaking Kansas State into the top 10 of the pre-conference championship rankings. Go figure that was the only Power 5 championship decided between a pair of top-10 teams.

TCU also entered the weekend with an average scoring margin against Power 5 competition of +15.2 compared to +14.2 for Alabama. The Horned Frogs learned how to play in close games, which would’ve been scrutinized much more if they were 11-1 instead of 12-0.

TCU became the first non-Oklahoma team from the Big 12 to make the field. Even if the Horned Frogs get blown out against Michigan, they deserved to make the field and they were worthy of the No. 3 spot.

4. We’ve got some tremendous matchups, and I’m here for that

So … Georgia vs. Ohio State in Atlanta and then TCU vs. Michigan in Glendale. Sign me up for that.

Can Georgia make corrections with its pass defense after allowing over 500 passing yards? And is Ohio State going to have a healthy Jaxon Smith-Njigba back? Or perhaps, can the Buckeyes actually show that they’re tough enough for a 60-minute battle against a Georgia team on a warpath to repeating? Those are fascinating questions that we’ll dissect.

And even Michigan-TCU has a ton of intrigue. Without Blake Corum, can the Wolverines do something they haven’t done in the 21st century by earning a spot in the national championship? Or is TCU perhaps in the midst of a 2013 Auburn run with a Year 1 head coach?

We’ve got some excellent storylines and hopefully, we’ll get 2 competitive games. Even if we don’t, I’ll still have the same takeaway from Sunday’s reveal.

The selection committee got it right.