Joel Klatt addressed Texas’ inclusion in the College Football Playoff at the expense of undefeated ACC champion Florida State.

For Klatt, it all boils down to the Longhorns’ early-season victory over Alabama, so far the Crimson Tide’s only loss of the year as they went on to beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Snubbing Texas would mean the committee “devalu[ed] non-conference schedules”.

“The head-to-head was a bridge too far for the committee,” Klatt said. “They couldn’t say, ‘Well, no, Alabama was clearly better than Texas,’ because we would have just pointed to 2 weeks ago when they needed a 4th-and-31 to beat an Auburn team that lost by 21 the previous week to New Mexico State.”

As for Florida State, Klatt felt there was a case to include the Seminoles in the Playoff thanks in part to their 13-0 record, conference title, and their own key early-season win over then-No. 13 LSU. There was just 1 caveat, though.

“They (the committee) had the ace up their sleeve of Jordan Travis’s injury. Jordan Travis’s injury becomes the path of least resistance,” he said.