Five options.  Four seats.  That’s the predicament the College Football Playoff committee found itself in this weekend.  Michigan, Washington, Florida State, Texas, and Alabama – one team was going to be disappointed.  By now you know that team was Florida State – the first undefeated, Power Five conference champion not to be selected for the CFP.

We’ve seen similar “more bodies than seats” scenarios play out in corporate America countless times.  When it happens in the real world, the rationale behind the decisions of who stays and who goes are almost always complicated and confusing.  Judging performance, identifying needs, eliminating redundancies, reprioritizing resources – any exercise involving letting people go – is never black and white.  And certainly not entirely fair.

This is the beauty of sports, or at least it’s supposed to be.  There are clearly defined rules, independent officials and, most importantly, a scoreboard.  It’s not a beauty or popularity contest.  Yes, sometimes calls are missed, and fluke plays happen, but at the end of the game we know who won and who lost.  The score tells us.

This is not true in life.  There is no scoreboard to consult.  Often, we aren’t even sure when the game begins and ends nor are we certain the criteria by which we are being evaluated. 

The decision to exclude Florida State was couched in the solemn language you hear from business leaders when they announce job eliminations – how difficult and upsetting it is, how they wish things were different, etc. Watching the selection show on Sunday was anything but an escape from reality. Quite the opposite, instead the committee gave all fans a blatant, slap in the face reminder that the games we love now resemble life all too closely.

 Yes, I know the arguments about Florida State being compromised by injuries, Alabama being the better team and the likelihood that this matchup will be more competitive. But let’s be clear, the College Football Playoff is not a competitive entity, it’s a television show.  The people on that committee made a programming decision based on Alabama’s and the SEC’s pedigree and ability to generate a larger audience.  As well as the fear that Florida State could be out of it by halftime, which would be bad for ratings. From a television perspective it’s hard to argue with their reasoning.

But think of all stunning upsets and legendary performances we would’ve missed if we allowed subjective decision making to determine outcomes in sports.  No Miracle on Ice. No Villanova defeats Georgetown.  And my personal favorite, no Giants upset of the mighty, undefeated Patriots.

“Sports is a business,” many commentators reminded us following the announcement.  No surprise, this has been true for decades.  But that doesn’t mean we should overlook the depressing irony that this transparently cynical decision was made in a sport that still has the gall to refer to its players as students.  Call me hopelessly naïve, but part of me held out hope that a committee of academic stakeholders would find the courage to put principles before profits.

In the end the committee did more than screw Florida State, they made an unabashed declaration that we as fans should not expect anything different from sports than we get in the other parts of our lives.  Their message was simple:  shit happens in life and at work every day, don’t expect anything different here, get over it.  And that more than anything, is why Sunday was such a sad day for everyone who loves sports.