Taking A Look At Week 14's College Football Playoff Rankings
-I think this is the best ranking that the playoff committee has put out. 1-8 is perfect. I’d have USC over Penn State. 11-25 aren’t perfect, but it looks like every team is within +/- 2 of where they should be. There are points of the committee I do not like, specifically the lack of analytics used, but overall they have done a good job.
-UCF’s AD does not agree:
-I may not agree anymore too:
-The talent at the top isn’t the same to what it has been in the past, but this year’s competition has been awesome. Look at how much is up in the air this weekend! The SEC & ACC championship game is a play-in game for both teams competing, the Big 10 championship game is almost a definite play-in game, and the Big 12 championship game features a 6.5 point spread. Compare that to last year: Washington played Colorado, Alabama played Florida, Clemson played Virginia Tech and Penn State played Wisconsin.
-There are some contradictions among the rankings. Auburn is ahead of Oklahoma and Wisconsin despite having more losses, showing quality wins matter, BUT Alabama is ahead of Miami and OSU showing quality wins only matter some of the time. There is a lot of subjective bias within the committee, even if it is subconscious. Is human error better or worse than computer error? It is easier to explain human decisions than computer decisions to the public, so I guess human error is worth it?
-The chip on Oklahoma and Baker Mayfield’s shoulder may be too big by the time the playoff gets here. After being ranked 4th last week and the #1 & #2 teams lost they only moved up one spot? There is this sentiment that the Big 12 is a bad conference because they beat each other, but when the SEC beats each other they are seen as a strong conference.
-Now to the Alabama-Ohio State debate that is going to emerge if Ohio State beats Wisconsin this weekend. I, honestly, have no idea who is going to get in. During the post-rankings show, Kirby Hocutt, a member of the playoff committee, mentioned their committee’s affinity towards conference champions:
As the Bear Chris Fallica mentions, OSU has the edge in terms of being a conference champion. I would personally pick Ohio State over Alabama because of their resume. Alabama has wins over three top 40 teams, while Ohio State will have 4 after a victory against Wisconsin. The Buckeyes top wins against #9 Penn State and #4 Wisconsin are stronger than Alabama’s top wins against #17 LSU and #23 Mississippi State. Seeing MSU still ranked after an embarrassing loss to Ole Miss makes me think that the committee is getting ready to put Alabama in over Ohio State. The committee also put Auburn higher than undefeated Wisconsin and one-loss Oklahoma is another example of such phenomenon. The committee will point to Auburn as Alabama’s only loss and two top-25 victories while penalizing Ohio State for their loss to Iowa, which is a fair move. Putting Alabama in over Ohio State isn’t a crazy move, but it’s not the right one.
-The scenarios talked about above are assuming that all favorites win this weekend. Don’t forget that there is a chance for more chaos if, for example, Oklahoma and Clemson go down. What is the final four? Ohio State, Auburn, Miami, and Alabama?
-If Ohio State does get in over Alabama on Sunday, I am excited for the reaction by the state of Alabama. I really hope that Paul Finebaum has a show scheduled for 1:00.
-The more controversial years we have over the top four teams, the higher potential we have of seeing an eight-team playoff. I wouldn’t mind that.