The first round College Football Playoff games are officially in the books, and many people were left feeling upset with how the games unfolded. The hope with expanding the CFP was that more games, especially early on, would be very competitive and create even more hype in the playoffs. And while the home atomospheres on campus certainly lived up to the hype, the games did not.
All four first round games were a blowout, included Ohio State's dominant victory over Tennessee Saturday night which most people thought would be the best game of the first round. On top of that, Notre Dame destroyed Indiana, SMU did not belong on the same field as Penn State and Texas more than handled their business against Clemson.
And while the rest of the country is upset with how these games unfolded and are questioning if the CFP should have ever been expanded in the first place, these four results showed that Georgia football deserved a lot more respect from the committee this season.
CFP committee was wrong about Georgia all season
The four home teams in the first round of the CFP all beat their opponents, and they all easily covered the spread as well. So what does this tell us? It is extremely difficult to win on the road against good teams.
This fact seems obvious, but it is something the CFP committee struggled to recognize all season.
Georgia played one of the most difficult schedules of all time, which included three insanely tough road games against Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss. Georgia may have only gone 1-2 in those games this season, but the Bulldogs were severely punished because of that. But the first round CFP games showed just how difficult it is to win on the road, so maybe Kirby Smart and Georgia shouldn't have been punished as much as they were.
Thankfully the CFP's treatment of Georgia ended up not impacting them at all because the Bulldogs still went on to beat Texas in the SEC Championship game and earn a top four seed in the playoff. But hopefully the committee learned their lesson and starts giving the respect teams deserve for playing tough schedules, especially on the road.