Penn State’s early dominance against SMU got SEC Network personalities mad over Mustangs’ CFP selection over Alabama

Regardless of how any particular version of the College Football Playoff actually plays out, many are always going to use its results to argue that other teams would have been better picks. That happened during and after Indiana’s 27-17 first-round loss to Notre Dame Friday, and it’s already going strong in the SMU-Penn State game, with the visiting Mustangs trailing 28-0 at the half.

Overall, there have been media members from a lot of outlets suggesting SMU and/or Indiana shouldn’t have been selected. But some of the criticisms, from SEC Network hosts Paul Finebaum and Peter Burns and SECN game analyst Jordan Rodgers, felt particularly pointed, and particularly interesting given their affiliation with the network of a conference that includes notable omission Alabama (which was battling SMU in the rankings for the last spot):

As noted, the SEC Network figures weren’t the only ones to criticize the CFP selections. Many of their ESPN colleagues have also weighed in to criticize Indiana’s pick over Alabama or even Miami, and even coaches like Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin have opined on this. And some media members from other outlets have also dropped major criticisms of the Mustangs and Hoosiers. And some of those came at the time of the selections, not just with this extra hindsight.

But even around the performances of Indiana and SMU, some non-ESPN media members also took the opposite tack. There were many willing to argue the complaints are missing the point of the CFP committee making selections based on what teams had done to that point, not how they’d theoretically stack up against the field:

Whether or not the CFP debate should keep going once the games actually start is a matter of opinion. There are some above who find this pointless, especially with the current benefit of hindsight, but there are also some who think teams’ performance in these matchups is relevant to who should have been picked. And that’s been the case for almost all versions of the CFP (and before that, the BCS).

But it is really interesting to see so many particular critics of these selections come from ESPN. And these particular ones come from not just that overall network, which is always facing discussions around “SEC bias” given its deal with that conference. They come from the very specific group of people that do a lot of their ESPN work on SEC Network. And it’s notable to see that group lighting up the CFP so heavily after a significant and controversial omission of a SEC team.