Here we go again.
Another year another in a long list of confusing interim Top 6 rankings from a CFP committee that continues to re-write the rules week-to-week depending on how it thinks it can generate the most controversy.
And it's a sham.
We're constantly told that "body of work" is important with the "eye test" being used (by supposed experts who watch a 'lot' of college football) only to intervene in situations where it's close between two teams. They say they have criteria, and then they toss them out the window when Auburn beats a pedestrian Alabama team.
Here's the current Top 6
1. Clemson
2. Auburn
3. Oklahoma
4. Wisconsin
5. Alabama
6. Georgia
How you can justify Auburn being in the top 2 is beyond me, especially when you consider that they've lost two games, one to Clemson and one to LSU. I'm OK with Clemson at number one. Their loss was on the road to Syracuse on a Thursday night when their quarterback was out with injury. That's an excuse, Auburn doesn't have one of those.
Granted, using the "eye test" Auburn looks pretty good right now. They boat-raced Georgia right out of the building and they handily beat Alabama. Those are two quality wins.
But Wisconsin is undefeated, and Oklahoma's one loss is better than Clemson's one loss. If we're going on "body of work" then how in the world can you justify placing UCF at 14?
In short, you can't. Because UCF's win over USF is much better than Wisconsin's win over Michigan. Ohio State (at 10-2) has a better body or work than Alabama (who, to be honest, have beaten nobody very good this year) and Stanford coming in at 12 is just mind-boggling.
Were I to rank the teams it would be as follows:
1. Clemson - I have no beef with this. As I said, they're the defending champions and their only loss has a ton of asterisks around it. Clear number 1 in my mind.
2. Wisconsin - Again, undefeated is undefeated folks and that's hard to get around. In retrospect, the win over FAU is looking pretty good, and they do have wins over Michigan, Iowa and ranked Northwestern to crow about.
3. Oklahoma - I don't see really any other place for them. Their loss to Iowa State looks worse after Farmageddon, but Iowa State is still a bowl team and it was on the road. They also have quality wins over Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Texas (a bowl team) and TCU.
4. UCF - You should not underestimate what they've done this year. Wins over Maryland, Memphis, USF and Navy are quality wins. Discounting those is difficult to do.
5. Alabama - While I'm not a fan of the Tide this season, they have the "best" one-loss of the year is much better than any other team's one loss. They fall behind OU because they really haven't beaten anyone really good.
6. Memphis - I know, I know, but their only loss is to UCF and they have quality wins over UCLA, Navy and a pretty good Houston team. Their one loss was to UCF by a lot, but they get a chance at revenge this Saturday.
A lot of the rankings come down to how you view the American. I view them as the single best group of five conference and the gap is not small. In fact, I would argue the gap between the Pac-12 (the lowest rated Power 5 conference in my estimation) and the American is very, very small. Compare the resumes and Memphis and UCF are right in there with the big boys. Plus, my agenda does not include keeping the Group of Five out of the playoff as the CFP committee's obviously does.
Can you leave the SEC champion out of the CFP?
Of course you can. Especially when they're having a down year such as this one.
It won't happen though, and either Auburn, Georgia, Alabama or (stunningly) two of the three might get in should OU & Clemson both lose.
A big part of me hopes for that latter scenario, so people can see just how corrupt and stupid this entire system really is. We're not better off right now than we were under the old bowl system, which I think we should go back to.
If for no other reasons than to restore the primacy of New Year's day.
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