CFP First Ranking - I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes....

[thwgjacket]

I wonder if Chris Fowler will give us another rant about how it doesn't matter that Ole Miss lost last week and is still in the top 4. THEY LOST LAST WEEK!!!!! This has got to be a joke. LSU is NOT good. SEC West blah blah blah, watch LSU play, they are horrid on offense and Bo Wallace made their D look a lot better than they actually are.

 

[4shotB]

just curious...if the ACC teams started beating their SEC rivals on a consistent basis and had 3-4 teams in the league run off a string of about 7 NC's in a row, do you think that would be enough to change the perception any? or is the media bias to pervasive to overcome even if these things were to happen?

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

As long as Georgia doesn't make it, I don't care who does.

 

[Troutbum]

The original contract between ESPN & Sec, timed with Saban's on-field success, have created this monster. With espn's continuous promotion over the past 5 years, most HS players have never been sports fans during a time when anything other than sec was on ESPN. Its a massive snowball that has led to the Miss teams being competitive for goodness sake!!

 

[CruncheeSportzATL]

So we've got 3 SEC West teams in the initial polls. Would you be surprised to learn that between Miss St, Ole Miss, & Auburn there was only 1 Power 5 OOC game scheduled? Additionally, in the entire SEC West there was only 3 Power 5 games scheduled. SOS is so skewed by preseason perceptions that it is sickening.

This Playoff may put the SEC on an even higher pedestal than they have ever been before.

 

[crl85]

The biggest tragedy is that ole miss, auburn, miss st, and bama have to play each other during the season. They are clearly the best teams in country, and if you're a true fan then you want the best 4 teams in the playoff. The system is bs. I think that any sec west team with less than 3 losses who is left out of the playoffs will be getting royally screwed. This has gone on too long... This committee needs to stand up and not be bullied into voting for FSU just bc they're undefeated. We all know that they would have 6 or 7 losses if they played in the sec.

And why isn't unc ranked???

 

[Northeast Stinger]

OK - which SEC teams do you take out, and what teams replace them? I am not saying that the selection committee isn't biased toward the SEC, but right now it seems those three teams belong. As Squints said, the season is still fluid. There is no possible way all three of them make it in. And with the SEC's performance in the BCS championship games, I think we have to give the SEC the benefit of the doubt that two of their teams should be in the final four.

Let's face it, if the guy for Auburn on their kickoff team doesn't pull a hammy and allow FSU to score, Auburn probably wins that game. It isn't like FSU dominated them. And this was the same Auburn team that needed miracles to beat UGA and Bama.

If SEC schools start getting blown out in the playoffs like Notre Dame has in BCS games, you will see the committee's bias change very quickly.

Whoa, you are really drinking the SEC Kool Aid on this one. I think the SEC actually lost their two most important bowl games last year. As for Auburn, it is now well know that they were stealing signals from FSU for more than half the game. You can say that is part of the game and you would be right but it probably kept FSU from dominating that game more. Right now in the polls I find it unbelievable that FSU is not number one. Never before have I seen a defending national champion lose a number one ranking without losing a game. Does Mississippi State deserve their ranking? Let's put it this way. If Alabama was number one and undefeated do you think Mississippi State would leap frog over them, especially when they have only one quality win and they struggled against Kentucky? As for the playoff picks I do not see how you can leave out both Michigan State and Oregon. Alabama and Notre Dame get screwed but that is the problem with a four team playoff.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

So we've got 3 SEC West teams in the initial polls. Would you be surprised to learn that between Miss St, Ole Miss, & Auburn there was only 1 Power 5 OOC game scheduled? Additionally, in the entire SEC West there was only 3 Power 5 games scheduled. SOS is so skewed by preseason perceptions that it is sickening.

This Playoff may put the SEC on an even higher pedestal than they have ever been before.

Exactly. Mississippi State's schedule was really weak. The only way to compensate for that weakness is to build up the SEC myth of superiority. Then struggling to beat Kentucky does not look so bad because Kentucky is, after all, an SEC team.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

The biggest tragedy is that ole miss, auburn, miss st, and bama have to play each other during the season. They are clearly the best teams in country, and if you're a true fan then you want the best 4 teams in the playoff. The system is bs. I think that any sec west team with less than 3 losses who is left out of the playoffs will be getting royally screwed. This has gone on too long... This committee needs to stand up and not be bullied into voting for FSU just bc they're undefeated. We all know that they would have 6 or 7 losses if they played in the sec.

And why isn't unc ranked???

? You lost me. FSU would probably beat Mississippi State 9 out of 10 times yet Mississippi State is number one in the polls. How do you account for that?

 

[jeffgt14]

All I've seen is a bunch of B-wording without anyone putting forth a team they think should be there. Mississippi State and FSU are undefeated in Power 5 conferences so they're in automatically. Auburn's only loss is to the #1 team and they beat Kansas State who is arguably the best team in the Big12 at 6-1.

Ole Miss I can see the argument against but they are 7-1 with a win over Alabama who and a loss to LSU who's only two losses are to Miss State and Auburn who are both in the top 3. LSU also has a win against Wisconsin who many consider one of the top teams in the Big10. Logic there would dictate that LSU may be better than their 6-2 record. Now let's look at the resumes of some other potential top 4 teams.

Oregon: They have beaten Michigan State who is the top team in the Big 10. However, they lost to Arizona at home. Looking at Arizona's resume, they really haven't beaten anyone else and have a loss to a 5-3 USC team that has a loss to BC. You can easily make the argument that Ole Miss lost to a better team then Oregon lost to.

Alabama: Another SEC team whose only loss is to Ole Miss who is explained above. They have a win over West Virginia whose only other loss is to a good Oklahoma team and have beaten Baylor who I will explain below.

TCU: Has a win over Oklahoma, however, they have a loss to Baylor who lost to WVU who lost to Alabama. You would have to put Alabama over them.

Michigan State: Lost to Oregon so would need to be placed behind Oregon in the ratings. Oregon's resume is not as impressive as Ole Miss as seen above therefore Michigan States resume falls behind Ole Miss. They do have a win against Nebraska, however Nebraska doesn't really have many quality wins.

Kansas State: Probably the closest team to breaking the top 4 in my mind. Only loss is to Auburn who's resume is shown above. Has a win over Oklahoma similar to TCU above but had a more quality loss. You can make a legitimate case for them to be #4

Notre Dame: Only loss is to undefeated Florida State at Florida State. You could use that as a case for them to be #4 as well. They don't have a single win over a top 25 team which causes some hesitation.

I'll stop there since those seem to be the teams most people would argue deserve to be in the top 4. Most of the next few teams I've talked about in someone else's resume anyways.

 

[Squints]

Ok, so FSU being ranked in the top four has nothing to do with them winning the NC last year?

You misinterpret me. I didn't say that's how it was. I said that's how it should be. Big difference. I think I've made it pretty clear that I have no faith in committee's ability to overcome the biases we've been talking about for years now.

I do think you picked a terrible example though. Do you think FSU shouldn't be in the top four? Because that's crazy talk. I think they have one of the best cases to be there at this point. They're one of two undefeated "Power 5" teams and have beaten two other teams on that top 25. And are about to play a 3rd this week. (I think they're the only one to do that but I'm not gonna go through all the schedules to double check so I might be wrong.) If they weren't in the top four the credibility of the committee would have been shot after the first poll. And rightfully so if you ask me.

And I am not arguing that the committee isn't biased. But again, please tell me what teams sec teams you take out, and what teams do you replace them with?

I think you could make a very good argument for taking out Ole Miss and/or Auburn at this point. And replacing them with Oregon, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Kansas State, or TCU. But that'll work itself out. I'm not so much complaining about the selections but the potential thought process that led to those selections.

I mean somebody made a good point that the committee used SoS to differentiate the 1-loss teams. Ok fine then let's look at Michigan State who's at #8 with their only loss being to #5 Oregon. If they played at Akron instead of Oregon they'd be number three in the poll? I thought we were rewarding teams for scheduling tough OOC games. It doesn't seam that way. True, ot's only the first poll and there's plenty of football left to play so I'll cut them some slack but so far it's not encouraging at all in my eyes. Should have stuck with the computers.

 

[jeffgt14]

Just realized I said I would give Baylor's resume so... They beat TCU and lost to WVU who lost to Alabama. I would think they should be ranked somewhere between Alabama and TCU.

 

[Squints]

These early polls will have no effect anyway. It is all a big fat waste of time.

I disagree. Poll inertia is a very real phenomena in college football and I don't think this poll is safe from it. And at the least this poll gives an idea of what the committee's thought process will be.

This is why I am and was against the playoffs. If a team is not the best team in its conference how can it be considered the best team in the nation? As Shakespeare said "suspension of disbelief". Everything is OK until you actually start questioning it and thinking about it.

I don't know if it's the playoffs that are the issue. Just the process of selection and how many teams are involved.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Face it guys, there is no true, fair or accurate way to rank a giant collection of teams for the simple reason they do not play the same schedule. Bias is unavoidable because everybody and the mother has their own opinion on how strong any given team's schedule is and the positive value of specific wins or the negative value of specific losses. Media attention (mainly ESPN hype) plays a huge factor in coloring these perceptions, that much cannot be denied. How in the world is Condoleeza Rice gonna form her opinions?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

One more way the bias works. If an SEC team does manage to win an out of conference win against a major opponent no SEC sycophant even mentions that the game was close, that it could have gone either way, that a "lucky" bounce was critical or that if they played 10 times in a row they would probably split the series 5-5. Nope. The immediate narrative is how dominant the SEC is. But what happens if the SEC team loses? Crickets. No one rushes to talk about "how dominate" the other conference is.

 

[collegeballfan]

SEC West conference games:
Alabama has - at LSU, Miss State and Auburn left
Auburn has - at Ole Miss, at UGA and at Bama - bring your roadie cup...
LSU has - Bama, at Ark and at A&M - Bama game gonna be heck of a game!
Miss State has - at Bama, at OleMiss - win those 2 and get my vote for whatever......
Ole Miss has - Aub and Miss St both at home - who paid the schedule maker?

And, UGA - Fla, at KY and Aub home - with Gurley? Really like their chances.

 

[Js-showman]

Have ESPN just declare the SEC champ, the defacto national champ. Problem solved.

 

[Js-showman]

Just realized I said I would give Baylor's resume so... They beat TCU and lost to WVU who lost to Alabama. I would think they should be ranked somewhere between Alabama and TCU.

A better system would be to have the conference champions play off for the national championship. Throw all of the also-rans into the bowl system. If you don't win your conference, you can't win the national championship. Doesn't mean that the second place SEC team isn't better than the Big Midwest Plateau Academic conference champion. Just means that the national champion should be one of the conference champions.

If you do it the way it is set up now, you've just rendered the conference championships irrelevant. Same as NCAA basketball.

 

[jeffgt14]

A better system would be to have the conference champions play off for the national championship. Throw all of the also-rans into the bowl system. If you don't win your conference, you can't win the national championship. Doesn't mean that the second place SEC team isn't better than the Big Midwest Plateau Academic conference champion. Just means that the national champion should be one of the conference champions.

If you do it the way it is set up now, you've just rendered the conference championships irrelevant. Same as NCAA basketball.

Well that's just rendering out of conference games pointless. Suppose a Team A goes 8-5 and Team B goes 11-1. Team A goes 0-4 out of conference and 8-1 in conference. Team B's only loss is to Team A so therefore Team A wins it's conference. You're telling me that the 8-5 team deserves to be in the playoffs over the 11-1 team?

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

As long as Georgia doesn't make it, I don't care who does.

Unfortunately Georgia is well positioned to make the final four. First of all, they are playing well, and seem to be hitting their stride for November. If they win out, they will win the SEC East, and in so doing give Auburn another loss. Auburn has Ole Miss, Alabama, and A&M left, so they could have 3 losses and still give losses to Bama and/or Ole Miss. Alabama has LSU, Miss State, and Auburn to play--multiple losses possible. Ole Miss has Auburn, Arkansas and Miss State. Georgia could climb in the polls each week, enter the SECCG with one loss, against somebody from the SEC West that would add punch to their resume. As SEC champ, at 12-1 they would easily be the No.1 seed. The SEC West champ could be a two loss team after the SECCG and still get in. The nasty little secret is that a second SEC team, maybe a two loss SEC team, is going to be in the final four, with two of the Power 5 conference champions shut out.