College Football Playoff Rankings Running Thread

I'm a B1G fan, and I certainly wouldn't complain if a one-loss SEC team made it ahead of a one-loss team from another conference. I'm willing to say that recently the SEC is definitely the best conference in college football (although I'll argue to my death that it's not as wide a margin as people think).

My concern is if the committee continues to react to wins in the SEC the same way the national media seems to react, that creates an uneven playing field. If a 3-point win by Georgia over Tennessee is viewed as a better win than a 24-point win by Oklahoma over that same Tennessee team, that's definitely showing a bias and just continues to feed into the hype.

 

That's true, but you must acknowledge that teams are not static, that they can and do "get better" and "get worse" during the season. Injuries, personnel changes, all kinds of things.

Clemson started the season with Cole Stoudt as QB.

Clemson (same team) became better when Stoudt was benched and Deshaun Watson became quarterback.

Clemson (same team again) became worse when Watson injured his hand and it had to go back to Stoudt.

Depending on when your team plays Clemson, you're either facing a Top 20 team or perhaps a Top 30-40 team. Beating them may be a pretty good win, or just a so-so win.

 

Clemson is only what Clemson is this season because of that crushing, suffocating defense.

 

Oh, I do agree with that. For instance, a win over LSU gets progressively more impressive each week. But the instance I gave (Oklahoma over Tennessee; Georgia over Tennessee) came a week apart. No way Tennessee became a completely different team in a week.

I just think because of what the SEC has done in the last few years, we tend to overhype any win by an SEC team against another SEC team (Texas A&M beating South Carolina in early Sept. another great example). I still say Ole Miss is nowhere near the fourth-best team in the country and I'll either be right or wrong about that. I think the Alabama win was nice, but I think they still lose four games before it's over.

 

Michael Dyer is going to put Oregon in top 4.

 

Terrific. How have they, in particular their 2nd team, done in the last 4 BCS cycles? Because that's what we're talking about here. The SEC's #2 team, in the elite bowls. Not Vandy's glorious crushing of Houston, in the BBVA Compass Bowl.

'13- Bama (Lost to Oklahome)(Lost both BCS games)
'12- Florida (Lost to Louisville)
'11- * Lost...but to another SEC team...
'10- Arkansas (Lost to Ohio State) In spite of OSU's kids criminally selling their own stuff, it DID happen, SEC fans

 

Don't forget Utah eating Alabama's cannoli in the Sugar Bowl.

 

Cue up Saban-esque "But it's HARD for SEC teams to get up for these non-championship BCS games" in 3...2...1... ;D

 

Man, I'd rather be the second-best team in the land than the 10th-best. With apologies to Dale Earnhardt Sr.

 

And there is the tried-and-true "Nobody is really going to say this, so I'll have to get it out there and just pretend to preempt a bunch of SEC fans who were surely going to say it." :

 

I think that when fans of the other conferences are beating their chest over winning the consolation bowls, the SEC can drop the mic and walk off the stage.

 

So...you're saying you've never heard it?