Josh Pate on Alabama making CFP while BYU was left out: 'Not all conference championship games are equal'

As the dust settles on the 12-team field for the College Football Playoff, some have pointed out a difference in how things played out for Alabama and BYU. Despite both teams making their conference championship games and losing, the Crimson Tide are in while the Cougars are out.

Alabama stayed put at No. 9, which is where it was in the penultimate rankings, while BYU dropped one spot from No. 11 to No. 12. Because Tulane and James Madison, both of which were outside of the top 12, earned automatic bids as two of the five highest-ranked conference champions, only the top 10 schools in the rankings made the CFP.

Miami jumped both BYU and Notre Dame to claim the 10th spot and final at large bid. Even if the Cougars had stayed at No. 11, they would have failed to make the field.

That, of course, begs the question as to why Alabama was deserving of getting in with a loss in the conference championship while BYU was not. College football analyst Josh Pate had the obvious but unfortable answer: the Crimson Tide are in a better conference.

“We really need to tell the truth about college football conference championship games,” he said Tuesday on Josh Pate’s College Football Show. “It’s gonna be an uncomfortable truth, but I think it’s a truth most of us know. Not all conference championship games are equal because not all conferences are equal. So there was a big question floating around last week when Ohio State did not drop after losing the Big Ten title game and Alabama did not drop after losing the SEC title game. But Brigham Young did drop after losing the Big 12 Championship Game. The question was, ‘Why is this product and process so hypocritical? Why did one team drop when they lost their conference title game but two didn’t?’

“Do you want the truth? The truth is because the Big Ten and the SEC are different than the Big 12 and they will be treated as such. That’s a lesson that I think some of us knew. Not all of us want to admit it, but most of us knew that and it was put on display.”

On the surface, the resumes of Alabama and BYU looked strikingly similar. Both schools had a 2-2 record against opponents ranked inside the CFP top 25, but the Crimson Tide had the No. 6 strength of schedule compared to No. 22 for BYU according to ESPN.

Alabama also had a worst loss as it fell against Florida State in the season opener while both of BYU’s defeats came against No. 4 Texas Tech. The Cougars even had a slightly higher strength of record rating at No. 9 compared to No. 10 for Alabama.

But at the end of the day, Pate believes the committee still made the right decision because of the quality of teams in Alabama’s conference, meaning the championship game had more value. It might not be what fans of BYU or the Big 12 want to hear, but that’s the way it is.

“Was it favortism? If you call rational observation of the sport favortism, yes,” Pate said. “I do know there are a lot of conspiracies out there that, ‘Well, this conference is in bed with this network or that conference is in bed with that network. That’s where the favoritism comes from.’ I don’t if it’s necessarily know that it’s as much that as it is acknowledging where most of the good teams and the good talent is. You don’t have to like it. I don’t love it, but that is the way it is.

“Even on our show, notice in the lead up to our final Saturday of the season, I never said if any conference runner up drops it’s wrong. I said if they drop Alabama it’s wrong because I awas already aware of this truth. This truth has been evident to me for a while that not all conferences are gonna get treated equally. Again, I’m not asking you to agree with it. I’m not even saying I agree with it. I’m telling you it makes sense and that’s the way it is.”