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Biggest Snubs in College Football Playoff, BCS Era
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College football’s national championship was once little more than a popularity contest. Yes, results on the field did have something to do with choosing a champion. But in the end, the trophy ended up going to the team selected by an unscientific poll of sportswriters or coaches.
The process has evolved and become much more equitable over the years.
We’ve gone from the Bowl Championship Series, better known as the BCS, in which a computer decided the 2 teams that played for the championship based on data fed into it by humans, to a 4-team Playoff to the current 12-team College Football Playoff format.
And yet, the pursuit to crown a college football national champion remains an inexact science.
Biggest Snubs of The BCS/Playoff Era
Whether it’s the third, the fourth or the 13th team in the rankings, the first team out of the bracket is always going to feel slighted.
Here is a look at the 5 teams in the BCS/Playoff era (1998-present) that had the most legitimate complaints after being denied their opportunities to play for a championship.
2016 Penn State
It might not seem like a snub at face value since the Nittany Lions had 2 losses while Ohio State, the team that got the fourth and final spot in the Playoff bracket, only lost once. But a quick look beyond the raw numbers tells a different story. The Buckeyes’ loss came against Penn State. Not only that, but the Nittany Lions went on to claim the Big Ten championship by beating Wisconsin in the conference title game. The decision to put Ohio State in the Playoff instead of Penn State got even worse after the Buckeyes were handed a 31-0 beatdown by eventual champion Clemson in a semifinal game at the Fiesta Bowl.
2017 UCF
Alabama claimed the official national championship in 2017 by beating Clemson in the semifinal, then outlasting SEC rival Georgia in the title game. But there are those, especially the folks in Central Florida, who still insist the Crimson Tide should never have gotten the chance to play for the championship. They believe that undefeated UCF should have gotten the fourth and final seed into the Playoff instead of 1-loss Alabama. The Knights’ frustration only grew after beating Auburn, the team that knocked the Crimson Tide out of the SEC Championship Game, in the Peach Bowl. As an act of defiance, UCF declared itself national champion, held a parade and issued rings to its players. To avoid a similar snub, an automatic bid was granted to the highest ranked Group of 5 conference champion when the Playoff was expanded to 12 teams in 2024.
2003 USC
The BCS was established in 1998 to produce a consensus college football national champion and end the possibility of more than one team claiming the title. But things didn’t go according to plan in 2003 when USC, LSU and Oklahoma each ended the season with 1 loss. That logjam meant that 1 of those teams would be left out in the cold while the other 2 played for the BCS national championship. Somehow, the BCS computer decided that the Trojans – whose only loss came in triple overtime to Cal early in the season – would be the odd team out. Oklahoma went on to beat LSU for the BCS title. But after USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl, the Trojans claimed a share of the championship when voters on the Associated Press poll picked them as the No. 1 team in their final rankings.
2004 Auburn
It’s hard to imagine under the current climate that an undefeated SEC team would be denied an opportunity to play for the national championship. But that’s what happened in 2004 when a similar situation to the one that created controversy the previous season reared its ugly head again. Only this time worse because the 3 teams involved – Auburn, Oklahoma and USC – all went undefeated. Perhaps as an olive branch for leaving the Trojans out in 2003, the BCS put USC into its championship game against Oklahoma. The Trojans ended up winning the game but had their title vacated because of NCAA violations involving Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, leading to even louder calls that Auburn should have gotten a shot at the crown.
2023 Florida State
Arguably the most egregious snub of the BCS/Playoff era – and probably ever – came in 2023 when Florida State became the first power conference champion to go undefeated and be left out of the national title picture. The Seminoles were ranked No. 4 in the final regular-season Playoff rankings and beat Louisville 16-6 in the ACC Championship Game to improve to 13-0. And yet, they were leapfrogged by 1-loss Alabama after the Crimson Tide upset No. 3 Georgia for the SEC title. Texas, which also had 1 loss but beat Alabama, also jumped over the Seminoles. The selection committee, chaired by NC State athletic director Boo Corrigan, said that FSU “wasn’t the same team” after star quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury. Corrigan and his fellow committee members must have forgotten about Ohio State winning the 2014 natty with third-string quarterback Cardale Jones leading the way.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
