ACC needs more ELITE teams?! - Rece Davis takes exception to ‘bias’ claims | College GameDay Podcast

this is the college game day podcast for Thursday July 25th Rees Davis with you Pete thill is busy chasing stories on these various media days one of the things that popped out from the ACC media days was an article in the 247 sport side about the ACC and its need for greater representation in the media to have a better voice to be able to uh further enhance their profile the hook to the story obviously blaming Florida State's Omission from the college football playoff last year on the fact that there were not enough voices in the National media particularly on ESPN representing the ACC now I took exception to this line of thinking not to the story itself nor do I take exception to those who think that Florida State should have been in the playoff that's a reasonable position to take but our job at ESPN is to cover college football in its entirety I understand you can't Divorce Yourself from your connections that would be nonsense sense to assume that everyone involved in covering the playoffs somehow becomes a robot and has no Connections in uh earlier times of their life for instance 2017 Kirk herb Street doubted the committee would do the right thing in his judgment and make the best decision and include Alabama over Ohio State his alma mater he got up and walked around uh out of admiration and disbelief this decision which Kirk agreed with came at the expense of his alma mater well you say well that's Alabama of course they get the benefit of the doubt I'd suggest in the playoff era no one has been given the benefit of the doubt more than Ohio State although Alabama certainly would be right there with them but have they not earned that and yet when you talk about this bias in the media and advocating for one team over another and you say Alabama always gets the benefit of the doubt no one mentions 2022 when our new colleague Nick Sabin thought his team should have been in the playoff over TCU or Ohio State and I don't recall anyone on my set including me agreeing with that position Alabama didn't have a case in 2022 Florida State certainly had one in 2023 there's no question about that and Mike nervell makes a compelling argument and a point when he says that Georgia had a case in 2023 if you said the best teams get into to the playoff solely on evaluation of talent there's no doubt about that the dogs were one of the best teams talent-wise but they lost their most important game on the field which was the win that put Alabama in the playoff so the natural response becomes well what game did Florida State lose the answer of course is none of them but that begs the question what is the ultimate criteria is that what it's supposed to be did you lose or did you not lose well for the entire run of the college football playoff almost every everybody on my desk especially me advocated a blend of resume which certainly includes being undefeated that's not nothing but it's not the only criteria so why do I go and rehash all of this it's because the point of the article and some of the coaches in the ACC believe that to enhance their product to enhance their status to give greater stability to the conference which is teetering because of the various law suits coming from Florida State and Clemson about whether they might want to exit the conference that the path to that is better PR a fine bomb of the ACC as it were I don't think that's the path at all for a number of reasons one because Paul fine bomb wasn't just ordained and dropped out of the clouds to uh become this cultural Juggernaut in college football all of a sudden he wasn't just handed that he built that with Sweat Equity and great rights first as I remember as a writer for the Birmingham post Herald in the 1980s and he developed this over time and he used his particular skills to be able to tap into what fans were thinking at a level very few are able to do orever have been able to do has it benefited the SEC you bet it has would it benefit the ACC if they had someone like Paul which is a real easy thing to say and an almost impossible thing to do of course it would but that's not what the ACC needs what the ACC needs is more Elite teams Florida state was an elite team last year you can argue the merits all day long that whether they should have been in the playoff in my judgment the one thing that kept Florida State out was not the lack of a fine bomb it was not the lack of representation on the desk on selection day which is absurd by the way because if you just have to have someone who represents a particular position or particular school don't you undermine The credibility of the entire Enterprise and that's not what we're about so the whole thing that the ACC needs is more Elite teams and if what they can do during that enhances their profile through someone in the media who grows and evolves and becomes a cultural phenomenon that's fantastic but it has to be authentic it has to be genuine it has to be part of that person's personality you can't just say hey we'd like our fine bomb too and Bill O'Brien pointed this out that there might not be another one just like him and for all of this the best news is whether you agree with the expansion to 12 or don't agree with it we won't have to have this argument anymore except as it pertains to whether the ACC should get two bids or three bids or one bid or how many ever bids they wind up with so a new day is here and I'm sure that won't soothe any of the Florida State fans feelings but we look forward to seeing the nolles in Dublin because it's a new day