Kirk Herbstreit describes what made Alabama, BYU different in CFP after losing championship games

Among the wealth of conspiracy theories that have come from angry college football fans on Selection Sunday, the consternation from Big 12 country was largely drowned out by the fury surrounding Notre Dame‘s perceived College Football Playoff snub.

But, while Fighting Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua directed his ire at the ACC and the weekly CFP rankings, BYU fans wondered aloud why their 12th-ranked Cougars dropped a spot following their loss to No. 4 Texas Tech in Saturday’s Big 12 title game while No. 9 Alabama held pat despite losing by three touchdowns to No. 3 Georgia for the SEC championship.

Even ESPN analyst Joey Galloway suggested Selection Sunday played out like a convoluted “WWE script” that was always meant to set up the controversial head-to-head comparison between No. 10 Miami and No. 11 Notre Dame, which allowed the ‘Canes to leapfrog the Irish despite both being idle Saturday.

Of course, amid all the shouts of SEC bias, the real answer might be far simpler, at least according to ESPN College GameDay analyst and ABC/ESPN color commentator Kirk Herbstreit. Ultimately, Herbstreit believes BYU (11-2) fell to No. 12 because it lost twice to the Big 12 champion Red Raiders (12-1), whereas the Crimson Tide (10-3) split their two games against the SEC champion Bulldogs (12-1), including Alabama’s 24-21 road win in Athens way back in Week 5.

“I’ll say this, … the fact that Texas Tech beat BYU as convincingly as they did the first time around (during the regular season), and they were playing them in a rematch. I just felt that if they beat (BYU) again convincingly, even though you shouldn’t be punished for a bonus game, because they already beat them once, and now they beat them again, I feel like that’s different than Alabama going into Athens, and beating them in the regular season,” Herbstreit said on Monday’s Nonstop podcast with Galloway. “I think we’d all say, … one of the greatest wins we saw this year. I think that insulated them, and not to (overlook) they lost to Florida State in Week 1, but look what they did (later in the season) … there were like four or five weeks there where they were challenged more than anybody in the country with the teams they played every week. So I think there was a respect for that, and then when they ended up losing that (SEC Championship) game to Georgia, I think there was more forgiveness than for BYU because of what they did going into Athens and beating them. That’s the only think I can think of.”

Galloway countered by pointing out the Crimson Tide flip-flopped with Notre Dame following a Week 14 rivalry win at Auburn, thus creating a potential cushion should Alabama lose in Atlanta. And while Herbstreit had no answer for that particular move, it’s clear the controversy surrounding this year’s College Football Playoff field isn’t going away anytime soon.

“That’s why the script looks like a WWE situation that just plays out weird to me in a way that did not have to be,” Galloway said. “And it’s the process, I don’t care about the teams, the process is what matters to me.”