Charles Barkley criticizes College Football Playoff's reasoning for choosing Alabama over FSU
Charles Barkley sure doesn’t like Alabama, but this year’s College Football Playoff anger had more to do with Florida State missing the final four.
Yes, Barkley is an Auburn legend but loves Alabama coach Nick Saban. Did the Crimson Tide deserve to get in? Sure.
But Florida State deserved it as well and showed they were the ultimate team by overcoming Jordan Travis’ injury, in Barkley’s mind.
“Here’s my problem with the whole thing as a player, they penalize because they lost their starters,” Barkley said on the USC-Auburn basketball broadcast on ESPN. “I said, ‘well wait a minute you showed total disrespect to the backups.’ That was my whole problem. Hey, you know how much I love Coach Saban and Alabama. I mean, I don’t like Alabama, I like Coach Saban. Winning with backups should have gave you brownie points, not penalize you.
“If we’re gonna play sports now where it only matters if you’re using your starters, I don’t want to be in that world. They won three games with a backup and another backup. To be honest with you, I’m really looking forward to the playoffs now that I went on my rant. I have zero idea who’s going to win those two games because we got four elite teams and I’m gonna be watching.”
Barkley conceded that he couldn’t pick the winner of the national title. But one thing’s for sure, he’s not rooting for the Crimson Tide.
“I can’t root for Alabama under any circumstances,” Barkley said. “I love Coach Saban. He’s been great to me. But I can never root for Alabama. Under any circumstances. I told you if they played Afghanistan, I’d be pulling for Afghanistan.”
Florida State will take on Georgia in the Orange Bowl, rather than play in the College Football Playoff. Head coach Mike Norvell released a statement about FSU missing the CFP earlier this month.
“I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the games,” Norvell’s statement read in part. “What is the point of playing games? Do you tell players it is okay to quit if someone goes down? Do you not play a senior on Senior Day for fear of injury?
“Where is the motivation to schedule challenging non-conference games? We are not only an undefeated P5 conference champion, but we also played two P5 non-conference games away from home and won both of them. I don’t understand how we are supposed to think this is an acceptable way to evaluate a team.”