Sunday was a day of celebration for many prominent teams as they saw their names unveiled on the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket. At-large programs like SMU, Indiana, Tennessee and even Ohio State can breathe a sigh of relief knowing, with certainty, that they will have a shot at playing for a national championship.
For all the joy that the selection committee's final rankings brought, though, there are plenty of teams feeling burned. It's difficult to quantify pain in a metaphysical sense. Scales like the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which measures the discomfort caused by various insect stings, exist. Applying that same theory to emotional hardship isn't easy.
But we're going to do it anyway.
Introducing the "Exclusion pain index" (patent pending), which measures the sting that certain bubble teams feel after being left out of the College Football Playoff. The index ranges from 1 to 4, with being the most painful.
Included are teams that had a compelling case to make the cut but didn't, or teams that once seemed like runaway favorites to secure an at-large spot, at the very least, before falling apart in the final weeks of the regular season. Either way, there's plenty of disappointment to go around.
Alabama
Final CFP Ranking: 11| Exclusion pain index: 4
It doesn't get much worse than landing at No. 11 in the final set of rankings and still falling out of the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide could throw daggers at Clemson for stealing a bid, or the selection committee for choosing to preserve SMU's playoff status, but really they have no one to blame but themselves. Yes, they did win three games against currently ranked opponents, including a triumph against eventual SEC champion Georgia, but Alabama also fell against two unranked opponents. Its 21-point loss to Oklahoma, which finished the year with a 2-6 showing in SEC play, was egregious. Strength of schedule doesn't matter when you can't win the games you're supposed to.
Miami
Final CFP Ranking: 13 | Exclusion pain index: 3
Miami had everything in front of it entering the home stretch. The Hurricanes were 9-0 and came in at No. 4 when the first set of College Football Playoff Rankings were released. Led by a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback in Cam Ward and one of the best wide receivers in program history, Xavier Restrepo, the 'Canes seemed like a lock for the 12-team bracket. Even after a shocking loss to Georgia Tech on Nov. 9, the ACC Championship Game was still well within sight. Then Miami fumbled it all away with a 42-38 loss to Syracuse in the regular-season finale. To add insult to injury, the Hurricanes lost their ACC Championship Game spot to Clemson, which beat SMU and earned a College Football Playoff bid in the process. Tough beat but, again, Miami did this to itself.
Ole Miss
Final CFP Ranking: 14 | Exclusion pain index: 3
Based off of coach Lane Kiffin's Twitter activity on Selection Sunday, the Rebels are really feeling quite spurned.
Is this fake news??? he didn’t actually really say that …. @AlabamaFTBL @SMUFB https://t.co/APxNx1xXJZ
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 8, 2024
Kiffin has been banging the strength of schedule drum all season, even though Ole Miss had the lowest SOS (No. 33, per ESPN FPI) among SEC teams and still managed to win just nine games. Granted, the Rebels did conjure up arguably the most impressive win all year by beating Georgia to the tune of 18 points. Ole Miss also gifted Kentucky its only win in SEC play and lost in overtime to 8-4 LSU.
South Carolina
Final CFP Ranking: 15 | Exclusion pain index: 3
South Carolina had a rather compelling playoff case. The Gamecocks closed the regular season on an absolute heater, with a 6-0 record punctuated by two wins against currently ranked teams down the stretch. They also beat Vanderbilt by 21 points and Texas A&M by 24 points, and came out on top against Clemson in a thrilling regular-season finale. One week later, the Tigers won the ACC Championship Game and secured the playoff's fifth automatic berth. South Carolina, meanwhile, wasn't anywhere close to making the bracket.
BYU
Final CFP Ranking: 17 | Exclusion pain index: 2
Continuing the theme of winning games against playoff teams, BYU set the tone for a once-promising season with an 18-15 victory against SMU in Week 2. The Cougars then ripped off seven straight wins and took a commanding lead in an otherwise chaotic Big 12 race with a 9-0 record. Eventually, the chaos caught up to BYU. Kalani Sitake's squad suffered its first setback of the year against Kansas, which played spoiler against a few teams late in the season, and then got effectively eliminated from Big 12 Championship Game contention with a loss to Arizona State the next week; the Sun Devils used that BYU win to catalyze their candidacy as a playoff team. Still, it was a great turnaround season for BYU overall, which mitigates some of the hurt from its late-season slide.
