South Carolina is most deserving of SEC teams fighting for CFP spot

The penultimate College Football Playoff rankings were revealed on Tuesday night, and as per usual a lot of people were upset over who did or didnt make the field.

Perhaps no team received more backlash for their inclusion than the Alabama Crimson Tide who the committee decided to bump up into the 11th slot following their win over unranked Auburn.

The three-loss Crimson Tide entered last Saturdays game against their arch-rivals, ranked 13th, and while the Tide certainly handled business, there was another three-loss SEC team with a far more impressive win.

The South Carolina Gamecocks went on the road and knocked off their own arch-rivals, the 12th-ranked Clemson Tigers, securing their sixth consecutive win.

With South Carolina sitting at 15th going into the game, it seemed logical the win would at the very least bump them up a couple of spots giving them a very good shot at securing one of the final at-large bids come selection day.

The Playoff Selection Committee viewed things differently however and decided that the win was only good enough to bump the Gamecocks up one spot.

Now South Carolina find themselves sitting behind not only Alabama at 11, but Ole Miss who the Committee slotted one spot ahead at 13.

These three all enter championship weekend hoping to secure an at-large bid, and the Committee made it very clear how they view each.

South Carolina lost to both of the teams ahead of them, thus making them the last man out.

These losses came in back-to-back weeks at the midway point of the season.

The first was to Ole Miss at home by 24, and the second was on the road at Bama by two.

The loss to Ole Miss may seem definitive, but when you add in the context that Carolina was without their star quarterback LaNorris Sellers for much of the game it becomes far more complicated.

Furthermore, since these two losses, the Gamecocks have gone on a six-game winning streak capped off with the aforementioned win over Clemson.

This streak also includes a 24-point drubbing of the same Oklahoma team that dominated the Crimson Tide two weeks ago.

Further still, the Gamecocks also hold a 25-point win against Kentucky, who went into Oxford and handed Ole Miss a loss.

All of this is to say that the argument isnt as cut and dry as some have tried to make it seem.

While head-to-head has always been a key metric in how these rankings are decided, theyre far from the be-all-end-all.

In fact, the Committee has long stated that their main goal is to find the best teams in the country above all else.

Theyve used this reasoning multiple times in the past to justify putting in teams who on paper didnt look the part.

"Clearly, you can go through an entire season, not beat a ranked team, and be in the playoff if you just win." - Shane Beamer on the committee ranking South Carolina #14 and without a path to making the 12-team field.

pic.twitter.com/TrGXNiUV92 If this is indeed the case, how can you look at arguably the hottest team in the country who just knocked off their third-ranked opponent in the last five weeks and not say theyre one of the best teams in the nation? The head-to-head argument definitely deserves some recognition, but it should not override what South Carolina has done since.

Simply put, of these three teams, the one most deserving of a playoff spot currently is South Carolina.

You simply cannot make the argument that there are 12 better teams heading into the Playoff, and that includes Alabama and Ole Miss.

If the Playoff Committee truly believes in finding the best teams, then theyll give the Gamecocks the nod over the Crimson Tide and the Rebels..

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