ALTOONA, Pa. -- I sat in the press box at the Big House in Ann Arbor on Oct. 15 and watched a dominant Michigan team manhandle Penn State, 41-17, and came away very impressed by the Wolverines.
Six weeks later, Michigan embarrassed Ohio State in Columbus, 45-23. Everyone was extremely impressed.
As I watched the most humiliating loss I've ever seen in a major sporting event play out Monday night, all I could think about was ...
How in the hell did TCU beat Michigan?
Now look, TCU is the lowest of low-hanging fruit right now. It's super simple for me or anyone else to pile on and pile on following last night's demoralizing, embarrassing, pathetic performance in a 65-7 loss to Georgia in the national championship game.
I would love to sit here and say that TCU is terrible. And unbelievably overrated. And never should have been there in the first place.
But ... TCU did beat Michigan. No, it didn't happen in some alternate reality. Or in the Twilight Zone. We didn't dream it.
This was real. Even though I still just cannot believe it.
I never thought TCU was all that great to begin with. The Big 12 is incredibly overrated every single year. They don't play much defense at all in that league. This TCU squad was a better story than it was a team.
This will sound like a total homer statement -- and I'd like to think I've earned my reputation over the years of NOT being a Penn State homer -- but the Nittany Lions are better than TCU. If they played right now, today, on a neutral field, I strongly believe Penn State would win.
But somehow, some way, the same Michigan team that dismantled Penn State wound up losing to this same TCU team that had probably the worst performance EVER by any team in a major championship game.
The 1940 Washington Redskins lost the NFL Championship Game to the Chicago Bears, 73-0. That's the biggest beatdown in the history of title games. But that was 83 years ago, when they game they called football barely resembles what is played today.
TCU may have to live with this worst-loss humiliation forever, because I cannot fathom another team ever getting to a championship game and looking so inept.
Yes, we have to give Georgia a lot of credit. The Bulldogs are terrific and won their second straight national title.
But this is why sports just don't make any sense.
Georgia probably would have lost to Ohio State in the national semfinals had the Buckeyes not lost star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. to injury earlier in the game. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud barely had any weapons left late in that game, and Georgia rallied for a 42-41 win as the Buckeyes missed a last-second field goal. Give Stroud Harrison at the end of that game, and I am convinced Ohio State wins.
So, if you want to sit here and claim Georgia is some unbeatable behemoth, it's just not true.
The Bulldogs barely beat an Ohio State team that got pounded by Michigan. And then Michigan lost to a TCU team that got humiliated by Georgia.
What the $^(%*_&*&^%_)^$!!!!!
I've mentioned this several times recently, but I have no idea what the heck Michigan and Jim Harbaugh were trying to do against TCU. The game plan was just stupid. Michigan could run over everybody, and yet, it got too cute and decided to keep throwing and throwing against TCU.
On the first series of the game, Michigan drove the field and had fourth-and-goal at the 2. Instead of just trying to muscle into the end zone, as it did all season and has been a trait of Harbaugh's for years, the Wolverines got cute and tried a double reverse that was stuffed.
On Michigan's second series, when you'd think Harbaugh would have remained committed to the run, J.J. McCarthy threw a pick-6. McCarthy later threw another pick-6 in the third quarter, putting Michigan in a 34-16 hole.
If Michigan plays Michigan football in that game -- even without injured running back Blake Corum -- I believe it would have beaten TCU handily. Instead, Harbaugh choked big time.
TCU did what it had to do -- credit to the Horned Frogs -- and earned a spot in the national championship game. Only to embarrass itself and college football in general in the 65-7 fiasco.
I'd love to say something like, all of this is proof of why Alabama and Ohio State get the benefit of the doubt from the College Football Playoff committee when it comes to heavy consideration even after losses. Because we know that Alabama and Ohio State have rosters loaded with elite high school recruits, high draft picks and future NFL players.
TCU just doesn't.
Had Michigan beaten TCU, it would have hammered home the point that the CFP committee would be completely justified by continuing to give any benefit of the doubt to an Alabama or Ohio State when those two are in the running. The committee, though, had USC at No. 4 ahead of Ohio State going into the conference title games, despite USC having lost to Utah -- which wound up losing four games -- and then suffering its own humiliating bowl defeat to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl.
Kansas State beat TCU in the Big 12 title game, 31-28. Then Alabama destroyed K-State in the Sugar Bowl, 45-20, giving the Wildcats four losses.
Alabama would have beaten TCU easily in the playoff. Bank on it.
But all of this gets very messy because of that TCU win over Michigan. In the committee's eyes, that win justifies TCU being in the playoff. And rightfully so. The Horned Frogs deserved a spot, based on the fact that they earned it during the regular season.
But the rub is that the playoff is supposed to be for the four best teams. Alabama was clearly better than TCU and everyone knows it, but the Tide shot themselves in the foot by losing two games.
I can go round and round and round about this all freaking day, and still not be able to make much sense of it all. Everything would be much simpler to digest if Michigan would have just taken care of business against TCU, then we would have gotten a much more competitive national title game.
But that's not what happened.
Instead, what happened is we got a reminder that sports are absolutely insane and often make no sense at all.
EASY PICKINGS
By the way, while I didn't see a 65-7 thrashing coming, it was very easy to predict Georgia would cover the point spread in the title game. Here's what I wrote Friday:
Championship game prediction:
Georgia.
Big.
The Bulldogs are favored by 12.5 points. Take them to cover.
Man, that was easy money for anyone who played along.
