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Former UGA running back James Cook blatantly called out the College Football Playoff committee for its decision to put Alabama in ahead of both his Bulldogs and a 13-0 Florida State team.
He says that the Crimson Tide were given the nod not for their play on the field, but for an upcoming departure away from it.
Cook says the committee knew that legendary head coach Nick Saban was retiring, and they did him a favor with an early retirement gift.
Alabama certainly didn’t look deserving to be in the national championship race early in the season, dropping a game to Texas at home and looking pedestrian against lesser foes.
Many predicted it would be Saban’s final year, not due to his on-field success, but because he looked absolutely exhausted while leading a struggling bunch with no offensive identity.
Midway through the season, though, a switch flipped.
Quarterback Jalen Milroe took the bull by the horns after being named the starter, and Alabama’s trajectory changed. The Tide won each of their eight SEC games, with five coming by double digits.
The team solidified its spot atop the league with an upset of Georgia in the conference title game.
That victory was good enough to propel a rejuvenated Nick Saban and his Alabama squad into the College Football Playoff field. The Tide hopped undefeated FSU and a Georgia team with just one loss in three seasons for the final spot.
James Cook thinks he knows why.
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And no, it wasn’t about an injury to Jordan Travis or Alabama’s head-to-head win over the ‘Dawgs.
Rather, he believes the CFP committee had prior knowledge of Nick Saban’s retirement plans, and they wanted to throw him one last bone.
Cook has ties to both spurned programs. He attended UGA while his older brother, Dalvin, was a Seminoles star.
He’s far from the only conspiracist when it comes to the topic, though most believe it had more to do with television ratings and a potential SEC bias.
Either way, Alabama got into the playoff field while Georgia and Florida State were left to play for scraps in the Orange Bowl. The decision clearly still weighs on the minds of college football followers.