The Alabama and Florida State playoff debate has dominated debate circles since its announcement on Sunday.
Both sides have been argued by several fans and media members in the past several hours, but there aren’t many who have as unique of an opinion on the matter as LSU head coach Brian Kelly.
Kelly is in the rare spot of having played both teams this season giving him a unique perspective on the decision from the committee.
But when Kelly was asked about the ruling during a press conference on Tuesday, he shared that he could ultimately see where the committee was coming from with their decision.
“It was probably the most difficult (decision) they were confronted with,” Kelly said. “But look, we knew that there were five conferences from the very beginning and there are only four spots. So if you did the math you just needed to look at the five conference champions and say there’s four spots.
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“And look we played Florida State and we played Alabama, two outstanding football teams. But the two teams were different at the end of the season than they were at the start of the season. So I think that from my perspective, unfortunately, Florida State was not the same team earlier in the year than they were later in the year because of the injury to the quarterback.
“You can take that for whatever you want, but if only four of the conference championship teams can go and there’s five, you’re splitting hairs because they’re all great teams. But only four can go and there’s five conference champions. And I think the committee had to figure out if you’re gonna sit one of them out maybe it’s gotta be the one that lost their quarterback.
“And I don’t know because I certainly didn’t sit in there but I can see where they came from with the decision that they made.”
LSU squared off against Florida State during the first week of the season where Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis led his team to a 45-24 win. The Tigers would later travel to Bryant-Denny Stadium in early November where it also fell to the Crimson Tide 42-28.
Despite being on the losing end of both games, Kelly had a front-row seat to see the importance of Travis at quarterback and the improvement made by Alabama throughout the season.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
