College Playoff Ranks

[Eric]

Apparently Clemson is #1, LSU is #2, Ohio State is #3, and Bama is #4. Then Notre Dame is #5. Notre Dame is ranked ahead of TCU, Baylor, and Michigan State. I know the quality of wins matter, but I will give the edge to the undefeated team. I have noticed that the committee is biased towards the one-loss teams versus the undefeated-but-not-quite-tested squads. If anything, it should be a draw and you should, on occassion, have the undefeated team ranked ahead. But they always put the one-loss team ahead. It's weird. If Baylor had Notre Dame's or Bama's schedule, they wouldn't have more than one loss, so why is Bama automatically ahead? I'd say they are very close in terms of how they've looked on-field. Yet Bama gets the automatic nod.

Anyway, this chatter about "if the season ended today..." needs to stop. Last year we had three SEC teams in the top four if I recall correctly. It will work itself out and teams will cancel each other out. There is no way that both Bama and LSU end up in the playoff. One will knock the other out this week. Undefeated Michigan State or undefeated Big 12 champ are not getting left out in the cold. Plus I know Big 12 fans are crying foul already, but the Big 12 conference slate was obviously backloaded. TCU still gets to face Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Baylor. Baylor gets Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and TCU. If they win these games, they'll leapfrog teams like Notre Dame easily. The committee just wants to make waves and appear to be smarter than everyone else. The media overanalyzes everything they do to try and stir up controversy. Nothing to see here, move along, and wait for another three weeks before the rankings really start to matter.

[Spence]

I think the committee wants to send the message that the non conference games need to be stronger.

[donovan]

I think the committee wants to send the message that the non conference games need to be stronger.

Exactly. The committee has immediately assumed a morally superior role over the scoreboard. Mr. Billybud was correct umpteen years ago, The Emporer has no clothes.

The ACC was spurned!

But as Eric say, wait. Money will prevail and am pretty sure that is not Clemson versus anyone.

[billybud]

The ACC will be there if Clemson runs the table....

The SEC Champ will be there...guaranteed.

An undefeated TCU or Baylor ought to make it...a one loss champ without a CCG is vulnerable.

If the Big Ten Champ is undefeated...guaranteed. One loss and the champ is still probable.

The Pac 12 needs Stanford to win out...one loss and the conference is vulnerable, just like the ACC

[highfly24]

The SEC is treated different and has its own set of rules. They pretend like they are unbeatable in non-con games except that was proven false multiple times, the biggest being Memphis over Ole Miss. LSU deserves to be up there but the fact that Alabama is there is nothing more than a guarantee that the SEC will still be in a top 2 spot after this weekend. They conference does the same stuff when it comes to FCS foes. You want to complain about Iowa playing the national champion runner-up Illinois State in August but playing a Charleston Southern team in November is legit. Gotta get that tune up before the rivalry weekend.

As for the rest of the seedings: well there are plenty of games left. I'm not too worried about the Big 12 being shorted right now because all the heavyweights are just starting to face each other. It is odd to be this deep in and not one game between TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma, or OK State. A late loss is always more damaging. I think only Oklahoma could get in with a blemished record. Their loss was early, they would certainly be finishing strong if they won out, and they have a solid win at Tennessee. If it's a good win for Florida and Bama it's gotta play for them too. With that being said, I'm not a fan of them and would rather see TCU go unbeaten and get in.

[Spence]

I just think it is wrong to seed a tournament with a committee. Iowa isn't going to get the same consideration as Ohio State even if they had played Ohio State's record this year. LSU and Alabama are going to get more consideration in the SEC. OKlahoma and Texas in the B12. USC and UCLA in the P12 and of course Florida State and Notre Dame (even though they are "independent") in the ACC. It is about fan following. Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State along will get "extra" consideration if they are winning. It is because they are the "money makers" of CFB. The playoff games weren't bad last year. Who knows if other teams would have had better showings. The problem is we didn't get a chance to find out.

I think the OOC conference should be strong, but people who scheduled Texas 8-10 years ago thought they were making themselves a good schedule. Same with those who scheduled USC. You can't really say anyone is going to be good in 10 years. Michigan had been great from the beginning of the game until they fell off. Who could have seen that coming. They need to playoff all conference champs and get a true champion if they want a true champ. If not, go back to the bowl matchups of old and let people argue. This pretend playoff and subjective pairings are no better than the BCS or the old bowl system for finding a champ. This isn't a secret to those of us who have been here a long time and have hashed through this before, but we did call this several year ago.

[Spence]

I think the committee wants to send the message that the non conference games need to be stronger.

Exactly. The committee has immediately assumed a morally superior role over the scoreboard. Mr. Billybud was correct umpteen years ago, The Emporer has no clothes.

The ACC was spurned!

But as Eric say, wait. Money will prevail and am pretty sure that is not Clemson versus anyone.

We agree.

[Vileborg]

I don't see any possibility where Alabama is in the top 4. If they beat LSU then maybe they are on the edge.

Why Notre Dame is 5th is beyond me. I understand they only lost by 2 to Clemson and if you think Clemson is #1 then maybe Notre Dame is close but I would not put them ahead of three or four of the undefeated teams.

Simply put, there is still a lot of football to play so I wouldn't worry about who's going to get robbed just yet. *Cough* Iowa!

[Spence]

These rankings don't matter at all. It just gives you a little insight into how the committee thinks.

[Eric]

I like the "Tournament of Champions" idea. You may or may not get the best teams, but at least with this way, everything ostensibly is in your control (a champion is not the same thing as the "best team"). Obviously you can't account for injuries, bad luck, or terrible officiating, but those are part of the game and you can't ever fix those. There are 10 conferences so you would still need a committee to seed and to determine who to give byes, which could get tricky when it comes to subjective evaluation. I think it'd be a lot more fair that way.

I get that nobody wants to hear everyone's special proposal for how to fix the playoff, but look at it this year:

1. Clemson (bye)
2. TCU/Baylor (bye)
3. Ohio State (bye)
4. Alabama (bye) (or if undefeated LSU, probably #2)
5. Stanford (bye)
6. Memphis (bye)

7. Western Kentucky
vs.
10. Appalachian State

8. Bowling Green
vs.
9. Utah State / Boise State


Pretty fair, I'd say. If you didn't get in, that's probably on you. If you take last year as an example, having to choose from Ohio State, TCU, and Baylor is an impossible task and somebody is going to get screwed. Now you could argue that they put themselves in that position to begin with, I suppose. But the problem comes in where they all pretty much had an equal claim on one spot. This system is simple: Win your conference, you're in. I don't have an issue with the NCAA basketball tourney selecting at-larges because at that point all you're asked to do is have an above-average season and you'll make the field.

[Eric]

If Memphis does go undefeated, how could be sure that they weren't one of the four best teams in the nation? The schedule wasn't a complete cakewalk. They will have had games against Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Ole Miss, Navy, Houston, and Temple (twice). Not the toughest schedule in the country, but solid opponents across the board.

[donovan]

Here is my thought albeit I am opposed to any post-conference championship games.

BYU, Notre Dame and Army join a conference or you are automatically out. (Of course Army could not care less and Catholic and Mormons both think they are correct no matter what...I digress...)

Conference each will decide how they want to select a champion.

Now you have X conference champions.

Spend the rest of the year on forums, around water coolers, at the beach, deciding who was the best team and listening to Mrs. Donovan say it is Boise State even if they were winless. Day before next season's kickoff, you haven't given a darn for the last 7 months

As for the traditional five bowl games...Conferences will have decided what bowls they want to align with, or make a new one.

[highfly24]

This could turn in to an annual debate about various ways to do this. The biggest problem is there were several good options on the table and they chose one that didn't help the problem much at all. Have a playoff field or don't have a playoff, a plus one is not a playoff regardless how much the media wants to sell it. Not gonna beat this dead horse, Blues beat the blackhawks, and I'm on my way to see Army/Air Force, my week is going just fine.

[donovan]

This could turn in to an annual debate about various ways to do this. The biggest problem is there were several good options on the table and they chose one that didn't help the problem much at all. Have a playoff field or don't have a playoff, a plus one is not a playoff regardless how much the media wants to sell it. Not gonna beat this dead horse, Blues beat the blackhawks, and I'm on my way to see Army/Air Force, my week is going just fine.

Beating the dead horse is the lifeblood of keeping the horse alive..."the emperor has no clothes."

[billybud]

That "annual debate" is a money maker. It is called interest.

Millions of minutes of ESPN watching, gazillions of internet hits, threads on 1000's of sports boards, talking head fodder for months...an advertisers dream....and ESPN ain't dumb.

Controversy is a good thing....now, instead of grousing which of a handful of teams make the Top Two...you expand the grousing to which teams and conferences make the Top Four. Adding an automatic "one conference drops out" was inspired...

Genius stuff....