Notre Dame or Texas A&M? Playoff Debate Is Ending in Fitting 2020 Fashion

Of course the final spot in this season's College Football Playoff comes down to debating which team's butt-kicking is worse than the other.

ATLANTA — It’s only right that we’d end this wonky college football season here, sitting high atop Mercedes-Benz Stadium watching one team kick another team’s butt while a third team watches from afar hoping that their butt-kicking earlier this season won’t be looked at as badly as another team’s butt-kicking earlier Saturday.

Confused?

This year has been one, big mess—right to its bitter end.

Alabama, clear and presently the top team in America, beat Florida to win the SEC championship on Saturday night, 52–46, building an 18-point halftime lead and surviving a late scare from the Gators. It started out as a butt-kicking, but certainly didn’t finish that way (in fact, the Gators had the ball, down six, with 16 seconds left to go 88 yards).

But it wasn’t necessarily this Alabama victory that was the talk of college football on Saturday. It was the one back on Oct. 3: 52–24 over Texas A&M at Bryant-Denny Stadium. And it was being compared to another butt-kicking that unfurled Saturday in Charlotte, N.C., when Clemson beat Notre Dame, 34–10, in the ACC championship game.

FORDE: Another Big-Game Flop Puts Notre Dame in Precarious Spot

So, in such a fitting manner, we end the 2020 pre-bowl season with a debate over which butt-kicking is worse than the other. Ultimately, that’s how the College Football Playoff’s No. 4 seed will be decided in 2020. Because of course it will.

The Aggies shared a connection point with both teams on the field here Saturday night, not only losing that October match to the Tide but beating Florida a week later for their best win of the season. A&M’s 41–38 victory over the Gators is the only reason we’re sitting here with a debate for the No. 4 spot.

A&M or Notre Dame?

Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports, Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel/USA Today Sports

The politicking began minutes after the Aggies polished off a 34–13 win at Tennessee. Jimbo Fisher got it started in a post-game interview on the field in Knoxville, staring into ESPN cameras and claiming that “something’s wrong” with the system if the Aggies can go 8–1 in the SEC and not make the playoff. And then came a smiling QB Kellen Mond. “We should be in. That’s my pitch,” he said.

Before the Aggies flew out of Tennessee, A&M AD Ross Bjork joined the fray, taking a not-so-subtle Twitter shot at Ohio State, the 6–0 Big Ten champs.

“Texas A&M is a playoff team. 7 SEC wins in a row when some teams won’t even play 7 games‼️‼️ We’re ready.”

But that argument seems moot at this point. Based on the committee’s season-long rankings, the Buckeyes, despite their game differential, will be in the playoff. The debate is whether the Aggies deserve a shot instead of 10–1 Notre Dame, fresh off a 24-point loss and its best win coming in overtime against a team (Clemson) without its starting quarterback.

We knew this was a real possibility, for this day to end with a Clemson blowout resulting in a raging debate for the 13-member playoff selection committee, all gathered in north Dallas to produce a set of rankings that will be released at 12:15 p.m. ET Sunday.

As someone who has experienced a mock selection process, I can tell you just how much the committee focuses on the numbers. And it’s a lot, whether you think that’s right or not.

I’m here to tell you that the Irish have the edge in most of them, but it’s slim: record against top 25 (2–1 ND vs. 1–1 A&M), games played (11 ND vs. 9 A&M), wins vs. .500 or better opponents (4 ND and 3 A&M), opponent win percentage (46.65 ND vs. 45.05 A&M) and average margin of victory (20.6 ND vs. 13.7 A&M).

Are any of these—or all of them together—enough to usher the Irish over the Aggies and into the playoff? Maybe. But what about their best win? Notre Dame beat a Clemson team playing without QB Trevor Lawrence and three defensive starters, the same team that two months later bashed the Irish by 24 points. A&M beat a Florida team that lost to LSU last week but played Alabama as tough as anyone this year.

That leaves us with the two losses. Which butt-kicking is worse? Losing by 24 to No. 3 Clemson on a neutral field, having scored just one touchdown and trailing, at one point, 34–3? Or losing by 28 on the road at No. 1 Alabama, having put up 24 points against the Tide but never inching closer than three scores in the second half?

Around the time foot met ball here at the SEC championship game, Texas A&M’s team plane touched pavement in College Station on the flight back from Knoxville. On Sunday, the Aggies will hold mostly the same schedule as any other in-season Sunday, says Bjork. There will be no watch party. They’ll go through the weekly COVID-19 testing and will meet at around 12:30 p.m. CT to discuss their playoff or bowl situation.

Until then, fittingly for 2020, we debate butt-kickings.