College football week 14 thread: ATLiens

Alabama's best case for jumping an undefeated team, and/or one that it lost to on its home field, seems to be, "Because we're Alabama and we're the SEC, so fuck YOU that's why!"
The idea that anyone would even consider leaving out an undefeated P5 champion, that also has two P5 non-conference wins (one of them in dominating fashion against a Top 15 team) should be laughable. One of the guys on Fox said it's about the last two weeks, not the entire season. If that's the case, what the hell were we doing for the past three months? Florida State just won two stakes games with the backup QBs that supposedly make it a non-contender. They've earned their way in. Period. If they get left out in favor of a team that has a loss on its resume, this whole thing is a traveshamockery.

 

Easy. The committee is telling you. Because last week FSU was 4th and Texas was 7th. Both won their conference titles. Maybe Texas should have been 3rd or 4th last week but the same committee who will decide tomorrow said they weren't.

 

it doesn’t matter because they’ll lose. Just like they did last year and the year before. They’re undefeated because they played an OOC that makes Georgia’s look like the NFC East and in a Big 10 that — and none of the paid mouthpieces will say this — sucks outside of Ohio State and PSU.

 

If you want to say Texas is getting screwed you are possibly correct. But the Longhorns won't be in the top 20 of teams that have been screwed in the last 50 years.

 

TCU was third in the next-to-last rankings of the initial year of the playoffs and won the Big XII title. Surely the Horned Frogs must have been in, right?

The midsession rankings are meaningless pap. Always have been. I’m asking you to start fresh and rank the four playoff teams in order. I’m even conceding the point that FSU and Texas are in and Alabama is out. But I’m asking you to decide which team is better. Not blindly point to the zero without thinking. Actually make a case.

 

Texas has to be in. The committee is currently sequestered in Texas. They can't exclude the Longhorns and expect to get out of the state alive.

 

I detailed this earlier this week.

TCU was third entering the final week and won, but there was no Big 12 Championship Game.

Ohio State and Urban Meyer ran up the score on purpose against a favored Wisconsin team to win the Big Ten Championship Game and moved from 5th to 4th. They also started backup Cardale Jones and won the national title.

TCU fell from 3rd to 6th.

The Big 12 quickly added a conference championship game, which the committee has supposedly deemed to weigh more heavily in their selectuon process, except when it doesn't possibly this year with Florida State.

 

We can do this all day but somebody is always going to bitch that they were robbed.

 

I really think the process is screwed by the weekly rankings release and the annual mini-series that compels it. The committee will do one of the following, both of which sound implausible:
a) Drop the No. 1 team out of the top four because it lost by three points on a neutral field to the colossus of the sport; or
b) Elevate the No. 8 team over No. 7 even though No. 7 has the same overall record and a head-to-head win on No. 8's home field.

If you aren't required to produce non-binding precedent, your choices may still elicit criticism, but they won't create as much rage as Sunday's announcement will likely generate.

 

I mean, the zero is the case. It's the trump card. Florida State has had some ups and downs just like all of the other teams, but it has beaten everyone on its schedule — including two SEC teams of the same caliber Alabama built the bulk on its resume on. The other three teams arguing they should get that spot have not. If the zero doesn't matter, shouldn't we spend time dissecting the cases of Michigan and Washington?
It's really that simple. It shouldn't matter what some chuckleheads think Florida State will or won't do in the playoffs. If they get beat by 50 in the semifinals it doesn't matter. They've met all of the qualifications to be there. They've earned that spot by checking one more box than Texas, Alabama and Georgia.

 

Every coach that won, and even some who lost, will have said his team did their part.

Now the committee will do its part.
Let the "we wuz robbed" complaints begin.

 

a) Drop the No. 1 team out of the top four because it lost by three points on a neutral field to the colossus of the sport; or
b) Elevate the No. 8 team over No. 7 even though No. 7 has the same overall record and a head-to-head win on No. 8's home field.

A is not only the right option, it's the only option.

Of course you drop the No. 1 team IF TEAMS 2-4 REMAIN UNDEFEATED. Why should a one-loss team be rated ahead undefeated ones who won their conference championships, which you couldn't do? (BTW, Atlanta a neutral field for a Georgia game? In what universe?)

And of course they can't be No. 4, because the team that will be No. 4 (Texas) BEAT THE TEAM YOU COULDN'T BEAT by 10 points on the road.

It's not that hard. In fact it's pretty easy. If you exchange Washington and Oregon for Georgia and Alabama nobody would be saying the Pac-12 deserved one spot, much less two, as some clowns (Tim Brando) are contending.

As the big boys like to say to the little boys when it's NCAA basketball time: Tough shit, SEC. Win more games.