By Mick McGrane, GoAztecs.com Senior Writer
(@MickOnTheMesa)
With the unveiling of the initial college football playoff poll triggering the annual Great American Yawn, it's time we face facts.
Alabama will be in the playoff. Among the top six teams, Alabama could have finished seventh. Wouldn't matter. If TV likes Alabama in order to sell cars, computers and cold beer, then Alabama it will be. Those opposed can shuffle off to Buffalo, which could become bowl eligible this week, but wouldn't make much of an opponent for Alabama in the title game.
Not that we'll ever know, of course.
When the Associated Press released its Top 25 poll this week, nearly a quarter of the teams — six, to be exact — came from conferences otherwise known as the Group of 5, college football's way of designating seats at its banquet table.
Among those six is San Diego State, which jumped from No. 25 to No. 24 this week without lifting a finger, prompting a suggestion to Rocky Long that with 23 more consecutive bye weeks, his team might well be No. 1.
But if the suggestion prompted a chuckle on the part of Long, the idea that the Group of 5 create its own playoff merely generated that mischievous grin, the one that lets you know Rocky Long knows a lot more than you know.
Long, you see, would play Alabama in a glass-strewn alley in the dead of night. He's previously stated as much, saying he'd be happy to tackle the Tide in Tuscaloosa providing Alabama return the favor by making a trip to San Diego.
Yet, rather than the Group of 5 setting in motion a move to crown its own champion, Long, naturally, prefers taking the path of more resistance. If the College Football Playoff (CFP) Selection Committee and the Power 5 won't acknowledge "little brother," then little brother will happily come to call — wielding a large stick.
"Obviously, the resources are much, much greater for the Power 5 schools than they are for the Group of 5 schools," Long said. "But speaking from our point of view, we'd just as soon play them, regardless of whether they have all the advantages or not. We like the challenge of playing them. We don't think they're any better than we are. They have fancier stuff. They have 15 different uniforms and we have one, but we like playing them."
Such sentiment isn't necessarily mutual, particularly among Pac-12 teams, which would rather see a train coming than Long's Aztecs. Prior to dispatching UCLA in Week 2, SDSU had posted four wins against the Pac-12 since the beginning of 2016, the most by any nonconference opponent during that span and the most in the nation by any Group of 5 school against a Power 5 conference. The Aztecs' five victories since 2016 were only two fewer than the number of conference games won by Pac-12 member Oregon State in the same period.
Not that Long's hunger to win is easily satisfied.
"There's a couple of teams out there that I'd like to play home-and-home that still won't do it," he said, politely not mentioning some Pac-12 teams by name. "Maybe we'll get them sooner or later."
In the interim, half the teams in the FBS will continue to be ignored as CFP candidates. At present, there's No. 17 Cincinnati (7-1); No. 19 Memphis (8-1); No. 21 Boise State (7-1); No. 23 SMU (8-1); SDSU (7-1); and No. 25 Navy (7-1).
The worst part? All six realistically understood they had no chance before the season ever started.
"I think you're being real there," Air Force coach Troy Calhoun told Sports Illustrated earlier this season. "Let's be hypothetical: If UCF (Central Florida, which finished the 2017 season 13-0) won every game by three touchdowns, they're still not getting in. The system isn't set up like that. It's the only sport at any level like that. Only way for it to change is to go to an eight-team playoff."
An approach Long believes is in the offing. As much as TV covets an Alabama as a cash cow, it's not above shaking the Golden Goose until feathers fly, wildly cackling as pennies from heaven pile up at its feet. Long sees that time coming soon, when ESPN is no longer content with the current four-team playoff.
"I think TV is going to decide," he said. "With a playoff system, TV is (going to decide), since most of the revenue (Power 5 teams get) comes from TV. We (the Group of 5) don't get that same kind of revenue today, but I think TV is eventually going to mandate an extended playoff system."
Of the 24 possible berths in the six-year history of the CFP, Power 5 schools have filled 23 of them. The lone exception? Notre Dame, which despite its independence, merely masquerades as a Power 5 school. Or maybe you've forgotten the hugely popular BCS system, which created something called "the Notre Dame rule" to automatically give the Irish access to a BCS bowl.
There is, of course, the opinion that Group of 5 schools should simply be grateful for a berth in a New Year's Six bowl. Guess what? Not only is the Group of 5 ignored by the CFP folks, it's largely snubbed by the New Year's Six bowls. Of the possible 40 New Year's Six berths since the current playoff system was introduced in 2014, the Group of 5 has been awarded just five of them. Despite the slap in the face, the Group of 5 has slapped back, winning three of the five. In addition to Boise State beating No. 10 Arizona in 2014, Houston knocked off No. 9 Florida State in 2015 and Central Florida dumped No. 7 Auburn in 2017.
In 2019, meanwhile, the Mountain West has more wins (nine) against Power 5 schools than any Group of 5 conference in the country.
"I think we've done a good job around here of not selling ourselves, of not going to play Power 5 schools just for a paycheck," Long said. "We've done a nice job making sure the Power 5 schools that we play are (scheduled as) home-and-home, which makes it fair, rather than the other way around where they give you a big paycheck so you have to go get beat up at their place."
Of course, anyone taking a swing at an Aztecs' program en route to its 10th straight winning season would do well to brace themselves for a black eye.
"I think it would be a lot of fun to just to see how you would stack up against 4-star and 5-star recruits," senior tight end Parker Houston said of a potential New Year's Six or CFP berth. "I think we'd do just fine."
It's high time we found out.
McGrane: Hungry Aztecs Fight for Slice of the Pie
