by BRYAN FULFORD

A friend called me minutes after the announcement by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee of the four teams that will be playing for a national championship.

No (8-1) Texas A&M with their one-loss in the SEC (to Alabama).

No (8-2) Oklahoma who won the Big XII championship for the 6th consecutive year.

No unbeaten Cincinnati (9-0) with their AAC championship.

No Coastal Carolina, who joined No.1 Alabama as the only other team in the country to win 11 games and lose to nobody.

Just the usual power teams representing the power conferences. Alabama, Clemson ranked first and second, while Ohio State and Notre Dame were selected third and fourth, respectively. To the dismay and disappointment of millions of fans, sportswriters, coaches and administrators around the country folks have trouble trying to understand how a team that only played six games could be selected, along with a team that lost their only game of the season by more than three touchdowns 24 hours earlier. There are clearly four teams that have a more legitimate claim to being in the playoffs than those last two, right?

"Give the deserving teams their shot!" is what they cry. "How is this system fair?" they ask aloud. "This process is biased toward the Power 5. SHAME!" All of the above and more were the thoughts and sounds as the names flashed on the screen.

The inequalities of the playoff rankings and selections of playoff teams is there for all to say, but nobody wants to be truthful about what it is they're seeing. My friend described it as the real world example of what "White Privilege" looks like in sports. WOW!

The Power 5 conferences get to drink from the golden chalet of privilege and share in the television wealth created by Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Notre Dame. Two of these four teams have appeared in the playoffs every year since the inception of the CFB Playoffs in 2014, and one of the top three teams have appeared in the championship game every year.

They've brought millions of dollars to the SEC, ACC, Big XII, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Notre Dame (an entity all its own serving as the only independent that gets to sit at the table of power with the five major conferences) and they aren't going to share that stage with teams outside of the group. Not even in a pandemic-plagued season where budgets and risk of the health and safety of players have been stretched beyond reason.

REALITY CHECK

For millions of minorities in this country like myself, we have struggled with the inequalities that have been so deeply engrained into the fabric of this country. People who want equality for everyone are often times surprised by the claims that people in positions of power will treat and respond to minorities differently than the treatment they receive in public places. 

As a white male in his mid-thirties that grew up in south Florida, my friend is aware that because of his skin color he gets away with colorful verbal conversations with police officers that I as a black male would not dare engage in because he hasn't grown up with the advice my father shared with me, "Respect them as the authority. Keep the police out of your life and you stand a better chance at living a happy life."  

He can go to the department store and wander with no intent of purchasing an item with no worry that a sales associate is following him around. He can sit in a Starbucks and use their Wi-Fi with a drink from another restaurant, use their bathroom and give no thought that he may be asked to leave if he doesn't purchase something. He can walk into a bank and probably stand a better chance at getting a loan that I could regardless of our credit ratings. 

He also knows that his privilege has its limitations among people that look like him.  He admits his skin color and religious affiliations won't get him into certain country clubs because he doesn't have the wealth or social standing that others who look like him have. 

America and its social classes is a case study that hasn't changed in the hundreds of years since its founding.  College football's power conferences and elite programs haven't changed how they operate, nor do they have any plans to change, and the sooner sports fans understand it, we can move the conversations forward.  

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL

The Power 5 conferences created the College Football Playoff system once the first non-Power 5 team, Boise State, broke into the BCS, beat Oklahoma and took food (money) off the plate of the power conferences.  They realized computers might one day recognize a program like Boise State, UCF or Cincinnati and place them into a national championship game if they had an undefeated regular season. God forbid if the NCAA basketball version of Villanova happened in football, so they created the New Year's Six and CFB Playoff Selection Committee to control the money and teams playing in six of the 10 oldest college bowls.

Control the process, the selection of who gets to be part of this postseason, and the money.  It's the American way.

Known as the "Group of Five", they are the minorities of the universe that exist in the NCAA-recognized division of schools known as FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision), but don't belong to one of the Power 5 conferences.  They may have schools with enrollments and budgets greater than some of the bottom tier schools in the Power 5 conferences.  Unfortunately, for one reason or another, they stand very little chance of ever being part of this system. 

College football and sports media who care about equality will write articles and point out how unfair the system is toward them when computer rankings, statistics and sometimes on-field results, warrant their need to be included. Just look at the way the selection committee positioned unbeaten Cincinnati over the course of their 5-week rankings this past season.

Cincinnati was 8-0 in 7th place following a win against UCF (the last "G5" team to be in a position similar to Cincy a couple of year ago) in the first rankings for Week 13 with three one-loss teams in front of them - Florida, Texas A&M and Clemson. Florida lost to Texas A&M, who lost to No.1 Alabama, and Clemson lost to No.2 Notre Dame. Ohio State was the other unbeaten team in front of them at 4-0. The Bearcats were in the conversation. Then, COVID-19 related issues put their season over the next four weeks of games and opportunities to play on the shelf. Maybe that's the reason a two-loss Iowa State (Big XII) jumped two spots over them in Week 15 and Cincinnati dropped to 8th.

Then in Week 16, it was two-loss Georgia (SEC) that jumped ahead of them dropping the Bearcats to 9th with 3 two-loss teams directly in front of them - Iowa State, Florida and Georgia. As they prepared to play in their conference championship, it became clear to anyone with clear sight that Cincinnati had a slim-to-none chance of playing in the playoffs. 

The final insult may have been the final rankings where two-loss Oklahoma (Big XII champions) and three-loss Florida (SEC runner-up) finished 6th and 7th, respectively, ahead of Cincinnati.  The consolation for Cincinnati was an invitation to play in the January 1st Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl against Georgia.  Among the New Year's Six, Cincinnati is the ONLY Group of Five school that received an invitation to the New Year's Six bowl games.

MEMBERSHIP DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE PRIVILEGES

Imagine being part of a Power 5 conference and still feeling screwed over in the process and selection to one of the elite bowl games, or playoffs, as Indiana University (Big Ten) and Texas A&M (SEC) do after the selection committee made the bowl announcements. 

Indiana's Fred Glass just retired as athletic director after 12 years of service on December 16th, so he could speak frankly about how Indiana was being left out of a New Year's Six bowl despite being ranked 11th and ahead of three-loss North Carolina, who finished two spots behind at 13th, and is playing Texas A&M in the Orange Bowl January 2nd. 

Now that Glass is retired, he can really say how he feels. And he didn't hold back.

"We do deserve to be in it," Fisher said. "You're gonna hear me say it now. We deserve to be in it. Now the committee, that's their thing, but I believe that firmly. I've watched the games -- I've seen everybody. We can play with anybody."
Added Fisher: "Eight wins in the SEC, I wanna see somebody else do it."