College Football Playoff Rankings Running Thread

No, Florida State is getting penalized because it looks more and more each week like 2012 Notre Dame. Good team, yes, but struggling to opponents each week.

Aside from Louisville and Clemson, there's no one currently in the top 25 in their schedule. That's true. But the Seminoles' inability to dispatch teams like Oklahoma State, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, Miami and Boston College with anywhere near the efficiency as last year is telling. Last year's team played a soft schedule, too -- they're all soft in the ACC, really -- but everyone knew that team was loaded and could beat anyone.

This year's Seminoles, they look like they could lose to anyone. It's a coin flip each and every week.

 

The odds of flipping heads 11 times in a row are very high. Winning a string of close games is usually thought to be a sign of prowess in a football team. The Browns went to the wire to beat a poor Falcons team yesterday, and nobody said "They've got that cushy last place schedule," they said, "they found another way to win."
Unless it is an instate rival played on an annual basis, I think teams should be penalized by the committee for playing FCS schools -- whether in September or now.

 

Truly great teams win every game by two touchdowns, like 1995 Nebraska and ... Florida State last year with the exception of the national title game.

 

Truly great teams are rare. There isn't one this year. Undefeated is next best, though.

 

Thing is, we can play that game with any team. Yes, I'm stealing this from Twitter

A team has beaten a 4 loss team by 10, a 5 loss team by 1 , a 5 loss team by 14, a 4 loss team by 7 in OT, and is 2-8-1 (just for sh*ts and giggles) vs. the spread.

That would be "consistently much more dominant" (per Jeff Long last week) Alabama.

 

Eight of the 11 toughest schedules in the country are being played by SEC teams, according to Sagarin's SOS rankings.

Now, a bulk of this is due the strength of the conference opponents. But to hear this place talk, the SEC ain't all that tough. So where do these SOS rankings come from? Who else --- outside the SEC --- is playing tougher teams by and large, week after week?

 

The Sagarin ratings are an essential component of the vortex.

And I dont think anyone is saying the SEC is terrible just overrated, especially this season.

Mississippi State, for example, has only played five bowl eligible teams at this point but Sagarin has them in the top five?

 

Yeah, Sagarin currently has 6-4 Florida at #20, and 6-5 Arkansas at.....17. Also has Ohio State ranked one spot below the Michigan State team it kicked the crap out of....in East Lansing...3 weeks ago.

I have no problem saying that the SEC has unquestionably been the best conference over the last 8-9 years. They've won the championships......although one has to be careful with that, as well. If Kentucky wins the hoops tourney this year, won't make the SEC the top hoops conference. Anyhoo....

I just don't find them, particularly at this point of the season, to be particularly superior THIS year. With a playoff, THIS season is all that should count. I truly believe the Big 12 and Pac 12 to have just as many quality teams. Heck, even the Big 10 has 3 Top 15 teams. With that, there is simply no good rationale for any conference having multiple teams in the playoff. None.

 

The "rationale" is simply, "Who do we believe are the four best teams in the nation. Period." Regardless of any other metric. A conference having "3 Top 15 teams" doesn't mean much in this regard if, say, they happen to be Nos. 13, 14 and 15.

And saying "no conference should have more than one" is putting an unnecessary qualifier on the question, "Who do we believe are the four best teams in the nation." The NFC South will have a playoff representative it doesn't deserve because of qualifiers like this.

 

Disagree, but that's fine. Your point, which I fully respect, still comes down to "we" believe. As well as a belief that the 2nd best team in the SEC, which is frankly based on previous year performance, is "better" than another's conference' champion.

In my view of the college football world, when teams have identical records, winning a conference championship (yes, I realize this doesn't take a future undefeated BYU or ND into account) would trump "we" believe. It's not the same scenario as the NFL. My qualifier / TIE BREAKER is having run the table, won the critical games & won a championship. I'm comfortable with that, far more than "we believe."

 

True enough, but when trying to fit six one-loss teams into three spots (as of now), determining "best" is going to generate debate resting on a number of inherently unprovable assertions and questionable rationales. And that's all the committee has to go on, too. I think they may realize the weekly ratings are more of a headache than they're worth. It's likely things will settle out by December 7 so that no or at most one of the four spots creates real controversy, but as of now...

 

These SEC West teams that have had midseason "dumps" are because the schedules for those SEC West teams are brutal. Ohio State had four games in a row vs. Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, and Illinois. They get Indiana in there as well.

LSU beats Ole Miss, plays Alabama to overtime (had every opportunity to win), and then "takes a dump" against Arkansas. Flop Ohio State's and LSU's schedules just in those games mentioned. I strongly believe LSU would have walked through those Big Ten games. Ohio State wouldn't have beaten Ole Miss, Alabama, and Arkansas in successive weeks.

LSU played No. 2 (L in overtime), No. 4 (L), No. 14 (W), and No. 18 (W). Other loss was to Arkansas. LSU is now out of the poll but Marshall, Colorado State and Boise (who lost to 20 to Ole Miss and beat Colorado State) are in the poll.

Counting up teams that played against teams currently in the top 25 and somehow making that a show of schedule strength is ignorant. Arkansas would win the Big Ten West and would be top four in the Big 12. The difference in the SEC is back-to-back games against tough opponents: Ole Miss loses first game of season and has to turn around the next week and play then No. 3 Auburn. Alabama lost to Ole Miss and had to turn around next week and go to Arkansas and escaped with a one-point win. Auburn was nipped by A&M and has to turn around the next week and to to Georgia. A&M loses to Ole Miss and turns around the next week and has to go to Alabama. LSU loses in OT to Bama and has to turn around next week and go to Arkansas. Florida State, Ohio State, and the Big 12 doesn't face that challenge.

List of SEC West losses to out-of-conference opponents: 0. Games scheduled against teams that I'm sure they at least thought were going to be good: Wisconsin, Boise, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Kansas State