ANTHONY GETTINO
Sports Editor
For the second consecutive week, Clemson football will be without its star quarterback and future first overall pick in the NFL, Trevor Lawrence.
The team was able to withstand his absence, if just barely, last weekend against Boston College at home. But will Clemson be able to pull out a victory against No. 4, Notre Dame, on the road?
And if they cannot win, how does this affect their chances of making the College Football Playoff in hopes of capturing another national championship?
They aren’t the only team facing this problem in College Football either, as Wisconsin is without its top three quarterbacks for the next two weeks as COVID has ravaged the program.
They’ve already had to postpone one game because of it, and may postpone more.
If these teams lose without their best players available due to quarantining, are they really at fault for those losses?
That’s the conundrum that the College Football Playoff Committee is having now through the end of the season.
Should these teams lose like that, can you really say that those losses are the strength of the team?
The point of picking the four best teams in the country for the playoffs is to have those teams play each other for the title at the end of the season as College Football’s best team.
But if the current best team in the country loses without its starting quarterback available to them for only a short period of time, you put in jeopardy that the best teams won’t be in the playoffs.
The problem with this thought process, however, is that teams who have star players out with injury aren’t treated like that, so why should COVID be an exception to this process?
Either way, it is next to impossible to have the true best of the best in the playoff at the end of the season. This year may not include even one of the four best teams in the nation if the committee isn’t careful about their handling of what to think of games lost by teams without players because of COVID.
All I have to say is that I’m glad that I’m not the one who has to make this difficult decision come Dec. 20, which is when the final rankings will be revealed and the contenders for the championship are announced.