The First Round of the College Football Playoff came and went without a winner from the Group of 5. No. 11 seed Tulane was run off the field by No. 6 seed Ole Miss 41-10, and No. 5 Oregon did not struggle with No. 12 James Madison in a 51-34 victory.

Through two seasons of the 12-team Playoff now, G5 teams are 0-3 against P4 competition, with an average margin of defeat of 21.6 points per game. During the latest edition of ‘Another Dooley Noted Podcast,’ legendary head coach Steve Spurrier claimed that James Madison and Tulane ‘looked like a bunch of junior high players’ in their respective Playoff games.

“I’ll tell you another interesting thing I read an article about,” Spurrier said. “Obviously, you have Tulane and Coach (Jon) Sumrall‘s team and James Madison. They virtually had no chance. And the guy made a point… he said the science of the players nowadays, especially at the power-five conferences, the other guys looked like a bunch of junior high players out there.”

“When I went up to watch South Carolina play Alabama. Pregame warmups were on the sidelines and we were shaking hands and whatever. The size of the players, when you’re down there, they’re almost 6-foot-6, 320 (pounds) with every lineman it seems on both teams. Size at power-four schools… they’re just so much bigger than the other schools.”

Tulane and James Madison looked better than expected in Playoff matchups

Although the scores didn’t quite reflect close games, it’s hard to say that Tulane and James Madison looked like high school players against their P4 opponents. In its 41-10 loss, the Green Wave were only outgained by 76 yards. They also won the time of possession battle. It, however, was their three turnovers that ultimately sunk them, along with falling into a near-immediate 14-0 deficit.

James Madison looked even better in its game against Oregon in Eugene, actually outscoring the Ducks 28-17 in the second half. The Dukes’ 34-6 halftime deficit however was too much to overcome, although they were outgained by just five yards and won the turnover battle (2-0).

It’s fair to say that change to the Playoff format may continue to be needed, just like how automatic byes for the top-four ranked conference champions were removed from this season’s College Football Playoff. The committee also could have never expected that the ACC Champion would be left out of the Playoff, just as Duke was.

James Madison and Tulane probably didn’t deserve to be in the Playoff surrounded by the caliber of the other programs included, but that’s the way the sport has set up the Playoff, so it’s hard to criticize them (by calling them junior high players) for showing up and playing the games.