
Gregg Ellman
TCU Gary Patterson
Gary Patterson led TCU as their head coach for 21 years, during which time, the Horned Frogs became perennial disruptors of the system.
As has traditionally been the case when the college football powers that be make their annual selection of teams to vie for the national championship — whether in twos, fours, or twelves — the Sunday-morning selection show was chock-full of drama.
And whether you dabble in social media or skipped communion to tune into ESPN yesterday morning, you’re likely already aware this drama came courtesy of TCU’s cross-town rival, SMU, and their inability to beat Clemson on Saturday night for the ACC Championship. Without the win, SMU, who had gone an impressive 11-1 before Saturday’s game, were no longer a lock to make the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. Instead, the dramatic loss sent them to the heap of non-conference champions jockeying for one of the select committee’s seven at-large bids.
Ultimately, the final slot came down to SMU and Alabama — the same Bama team that two weeks earlier lost by 21 points to one of their conference’s worst teams, Oklahoma. Alabama had gone 9-3 with two losses (to Vanderbilt and OU) that would be a black mark for any team putting together a resume to advance to the playoffs and didn’t play in their conference championship. But their strength of schedule ranks ninth, and the Crimson Tide had impressive wins over Georgia, South Carolina, and Missouri. Add to this the clout that Alabama and the SEC no doubt carry, and a large portion of the college football world felt Bama was a deserving and even necessary addition to the College Football Playoff.
And all would have gone according to plan had SMU either defeated the lower-ranked Clemson or lost by such a wide margin that they would be deemed disqualified. The latter seemed possible in the game’s first quarter, as SMU fell into a hole. But the Mustangs clawed their way back — looking pretty damn impressive in the process — to tie the game with 16 seconds remaining only to lose on a last-second field goal.
Close game. Clemson win. Worst possible outcome for Alabama.
The two other high-ranked teams that also lost their conference championship games, Texas and Penn State, were long considered locks for the playoffs. But SMU, despite also having a single loss on their record, wasn’t. And now their fate was being litigated on TV by talking heads wondering aloud, “who’d they play?” “Are they really the better team?” “Would they be favored in a game against Alabama?” The answers typically being no one, no, and no, respectively.
Sound familiar, TCU fans?
While this year’s loss still stings and the bitter taste of the SMU rivalry remains on every Horned Frogs’ lips, I don’t think it’s a stretch to presume TCU fans might have had some feelings of empathy toward the Mustangs.
After all, SMU found themselves in a spot that was practically invented by TCU.
In November 2003, almost 10 years after the disintegration of the Southwest Conference that hurtled TCU, SMU, Houston, and Rice into mid-major conferences, TCU found itself in the middle of a debate as to whether mid-major conference teams could or should compete in BCS bowl games — those exclusively reserved for the nation’s top teams.
One could easily blame this era (the Bowl Championship Series era), when computer formulas had a say in rankings and a small slate of bowl games served as consolation prizes for the best teams not playing for a title — this in lieu of a playoff — for creating the large division between mid-major and power conference teams. There was no harder time to compete for a non-power-conference school.
Yet, entering the season’s fourteenth week, TCU, then in Conference USA, was one of only two unbeaten teams and coming off a 33-point win over Cincinnati.
From what I recall, this is the first time Sports Center had ever posed the question: “Do these teams belong in big games against the best teams?” The question, to be more specific, was whether TCU belonged — whether the little Fort Worth school could hang with the literal and proverbial big boys. TCU, in many ways, was the guinea pig.
“Unbeaten, Unwanted,” a Star-Telegram headline read from the Nov. 19, 2003, edition. “History shows BCS’s disdain for outsiders’ perfect records,” continued the subheading.
The article, by Wendell Barnhouse, quotes the coaches of two previous undefeated teams that didn’t make it to a BCS bowl. Bob Pruett, who coached Marshall to an undefeated season in 1999, said “the system is not rigged for the mid-major schools. TCU beat a good Cincinnati team and dropped [in the rankings]. All you can do is play who’s on your schedule. Those guys knew what they were doing when they figured out that formula. It doesn’t take Kojak to figure that out.”
Bobby Bowden, who coached Tulane to an undefeated record in 1998, did not share Pruett’s sentiments. “I was not disappointed we didn’t get selected for a BCS bowl that season because I’m a big believer in strength of schedule … When I was at Tulane, I didn’t feel that we faced the same type of competition week in, week out that teams from the SEC or the Big Ten faced.”
The day after that article went to press, and just as the conversation was coming to a boil, TCU would lose to Southern Mississippi on national TV — the game was on ESPN. The skeptics could breathe easy again … for a minute.
TCU’s brief flirtation with the BCS clearly left an impression. The following seasons, the consistent successes of TCU, Boise State, and Utah would open the door for BCS bowl invites — Utah and Boise State would get their opportunities first with wins in 2005 and 2007 respectively, and TCU would soon follow with back-to-back appearances in 2010 and 2011.
But getting in is merely half the battle.
While this year's committee ultimately did select SMU — and for good reason, this writer would argue — they’re now entering a perpetual state of proving they belong. But, as TCU can attest, what it breeds is far from the typical underdog mentality one might see in March Madness. After all, this is not a 70-team field, but merely 12. SMU took that spot from someone, and they are very aware from whom it was taken.
They will be consistently reminded of this between now and kickoff and perhaps beyond. And the phrase “strength of schedule,” which is code for “make sure the traditionally great programs remain,” will inevitably make its way into every conversation about SMU.
What SMU will feel is a peculiar kind of pressure. Sure, they’re thirsty to prove something to themselves, but they’ll also be playing with the entire weight of their conference on their backs — each conference foe hoping SMU shows the world that Atlantic Coast Conference teams are better and worthier than pundits would profess.
While the ACC technically carries the title “Power Conference,” recent realignment makes any conference not named Big 10 or SEC slightly less-than. This holds true for the Big 12, too.
This is partially why it’s universally accepted Penn State is overjoyed with the selection committee’s decision. According to an argument made this morning by ESPN’s Rece Davis, among others, with Penn State playing SMU in the first round, they’re now on the “easiest path” to get to the final game — a path that includes a matchup with undefeated mid-major school Boise State.
Is this similar to Michigan being ecstatic to draw TCU in the first round of the 2022 playoffs? Perhaps, but someone needs to remind Nick Saban such a matchup occurred.
While speaking of his discontent for SMU receiving Alabama’s spot, the former Bama head coach turned college football analyst, referenced TCU’s 2022 season (but never by name, mind you).
Yes, just like SMU this year, TCU supposedly took Bama’s spot in the 2022 College Football Playoff, something that clearly still bothers Saban. “We would have been favored by 13 points over the team that got in, but we didn’t get in,” Saban conjectured on Sunday morning’s telecast. “And then the outcome was not … because the other team was so much more physical than them. That kind of physical play is going to be what dominates this playoff.”
Rece Davis piped in, “Of course, the reference that you’re making is a couple years ago when George beat TCU 65-7 after TCU stayed in the field after losing the Big 12 championship game.”
“That’s it,” Saban responded. Both seeming to forget that TCU never trailed in a 51-45 win over the previously undefeated Michigan to reach the title game against Georgia.
Yeah. Always fighting to prove they belong.
TCU’s 2011 team, the second in a row to go to a BCS bowl, would finish the year with the No.1-ranked defense and were beating teams by an average of 32 points per game. And despite every poll having them ranked a single spot above Wisconsin (No. 3 vs. No. 4), TCU entered the Rose Bowl as underdogs. They’d go on to defeat Wisconsin by two and finish the year as one of only two undefeated teams.
The following year, TCU would level-up to the Big 12 Conference. In 2014, the first year of the 4-team College Football Playoff, TCU would go 11-1 in the regular season, their sole loss by three points at No. 5 Baylor after building a 21-point lead. Their record included wins against four ranked teams, including two in the top 10. The Horned Frogs concluded their season ranked No. 3 in the CFP rankings. Yet, with no conference championship game, Florida State and Ohio State jumped TCU following wins in the championship games.
The Horned Frogs would go on to the Peach Bowl where they’d defeat Ole Miss, a team that represented the only blemish on one particular College Football Playoff team’s resume: Alabama.
TCU would end the year ranked No. 3.
It was once thought that a playoff system would fix the divide between mid-major and power conference teams.
In that November 2003 Star-Telegram article on TCU’s then-undefeated season — a jinx if I’ve ever seen one — Marshall coach Bob Pruett contended, “We need a playoff. I think that’s what we need for college football. I think we should win championships on the field. That gives everybody the best chance. If you win or lost, it tells the tale of the tape.”
Unfortunately, like the BCS, even this system was never built for the little guy. Despite TCU knocking on the door (more than once), no non-power-conference team played for the national championship in the Bowl Championship Series era, which lasted from 1998 to 2013. And, in the 10 seasons of the four-team playoff — that’s 40 team selections if you did your math right — only three selections went to teams that I’ll define as not-ESPN’s-idea-of-traditional-powerhouses (yes, this does include TCU), with one being a mid-major.
With so many teams and so few selections, one would presume horrid and embarrassing showings at such big games had precluded those who make such decisions from selecting these teams.
Well, such presumptions are far from accurate.
Mid-major teams that managed to land an invite to one of the four BCS bowls — they called these programs BCS Busters — went an impressive 6-3 in such games (and this includes TCU’s close loss to fellow BCS Buster Boise State in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl).
When combining BCS and College Football Playoff games, TCU, for their part, have gone 2-2. And this .500 record stacks up favorably to a slew of “traditional powerhouses” that keep getting invites to such exclusive games, including Michigan (4-5), Oklahoma (4-9), Florida State (3-6), and Notre Dame (an abysmal 0-6).
Even teams whose postseason records don’t fit neatly into my argument aren’t exactly world shakers at this level. Alabama’s 12-8, Clemson’s 7-5, Ohio State’s 6-4, and even Texas is only 3-2.
Point being, it isn’t a perfect system. And while this iteration of a college football postseason is no doubt frustrating for “routinely great power conference” teams, it’s exponentially more frustrating for, well, just great teams.
This, of course, marks SMU’s first foray into the world of postseason college football, and like all the great BCS-busting, mid-major subverts that cracked the code before them, they’re causing people to freak the hell out. “We need to reconsider the whole [College Football Playoff] model,” I recall one analyst saying.
SMU hasn’t rocked the college football world like this since 1987. And if laying waste to the college football landscape is SMU’s payback for the death penalty, bravo. But just remember, Ponies, you’re walking a path first paved by Horned Frogs.