Alabama has been the most dominant college football program for the first quarter of the 21st Century.
That is now over.
On Friday, the Crimson Tide was dismantled by Indiana at the Rose Bowl, suffering the worst postseason defeat in program history, 38-3.
This shocked ESPN’s lead college football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, and his broadcast partner, Chris Fowler, who remarked on the fall of once-mighty Alabama.
“It feels like Alabama, it’s just strange to see,” Herbstreit said. “They’re just existing. They’re just out there. Nobody is penetrating. Nobody is playing with any fire. It’s almost like they feel defeated. Like, there’s nothing we can do. … Hands on their hips, they’re just kind of out there.”
Herbstreit and Fowler became blunter as Indiana’s dominance became more evident, as when the Hoosiers went up 38-3.
It’s curious as to why Herbsteit seemed so dumbfounded by Alabama’s performance. The Tide did not play well down the final stretch of the season. After losing to an Oklahoma team with a very suspect offense, Alabama barely survived a 5-win Auburn team with an interim coach and got thoroughly dismantled by Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, a performance in which the Crimson Tide amassed -3 rushing yards.
It seemed to the college football-watching world that the beatdown by Georgia should have been enough to knock them back at least one spot in the College Football Playoff (CFP) bracket, but the committee chose not to do so, and Herbstreit defended their decision.
Herbstreit made a bizarre argument, saying that Alabama’s earlier regular-season win over Georgia should be a reason not to punish them for losing to Georgia in the playoffs.
“I think what’s different in my mind is Alabama went to Athens, and they played. They went into one of the toughest environments in the country and won,” Herbstreit said. “Now, their bonus round is they get to go play that same team on a neutral site. Unless they get blown out 59-0, if I were on the committee, I would have a very hard time punishing a team for going to their conference championship and playing a team that they already beat.”
Put charitably, Herbstreit’s argument is convoluted. Put uncharitably, it’s basically insane.
By crediting Alabama for a win over Georgia in the regular season and refusing to penalize them for a crushing defeat in the SEC Championship Game, he is essentially giving Alabama credit for beating Georgia twice.
This “philosophy,” apparently shared by the selection committee, had disastrous consequences as Alabama’s obvious and glaring flaws were ignored. This resulted in their placement in the final field of 12 and the exclusion of Notre Dame. A team that would almost certainly have beaten Oklahoma and would have given Indiana a far better game than Alabama did.
Not to mention that every other team that lost a conference championship game got demoted at least one spot.
In any event, Indiana won in dominating fashion and has earned a Peach Bowl matchup with Oregon on January 9.
