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Brand Bias and Broken Metrics: Why the College Football Playoff Committee Still Gets It Wrong
Brand names matter. That much is clear after our first look at the college football playoff rankings. While the College Football Playoff Committee has a virtually impossible task, some things should be easy enough for the most basic football fan to understand. It’s been a staple of this column since the beginning: who did you beat, and who did you lose to? When we look at Notre Dame, it is clear the brand name is more important than the actual results. Notre Dame lost the season opener at Miami but remain 8 spots ahead of them in the rankings. Why? The easiest answer is the eye test, something I’ve rolled my eyes at since my formative years (https://pulpcitymag.com/college-football-eye-test-failure/).
The College Football Playoff Committee is a group of 12 members who have three year terms and are responsible for coming up with the rankings for teams and are the ultimate deciders of who will and will not be in the college football playoff. This year the Committee is led by Mack Rhoades, the Athletic Director at Baylor. He is the one shoved in front of a camera each week to explain why the group believes one team is better than another. Their task is to come up with the “best teams”, a far too subjective metric. This ambiguity is the exact reason why Florida State was excluded from the playoff two seasons ago when their starting quarterback was knocked out for the season. The Seminoles won every single game on their schedule but were left out of what was then only a final four playoff because this group of administrators and former coaches knew so much better than everyone else. If wins and losses don’t really matter, what is the point of playing the games? College football has a long way to go before they are getting it right.
Florida State’s Mike Norvell lashed out at his critics this week after another loss to Clemson. The Noles have lost 9 of the last 10 to the Tigers. At his weekly press conference, he told the media “We are going to get this back. Fixed it once, we are going to fix it again.” Norvell says. “The belief is there.” I understand that FSU fans are unhappy, but sadly, you are going to have to ride out the storm with Mike Norvell. For the Seminoles to get back, they cannot afford to give him more than 50 million dollars, pay the new coach top dollar, and pay players enough NIL money to be competitive. “I’ve actually won a championship. I’ve done that, and we are going to do it again” Norvell boldly says, “and we are going to do it here.” Good luck with that Florida State.
TOP 25 FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING NOVEMBER 10TH
- OHIO STATE (9-0) Not as many high level wins, but steamrolling everyone
- INDIANA (10-0) Survived Penn State with a brilliant late drive
- TEXAS A&M (9-0) Won at Missouri against their backup QB
- ALABAMA (8-1) Eight in a row, including Vandy, Tennessee, Missouri, and Georgia
- TEXAS TECH (9-1) Dominated BYU in best win of season
- GEORGIA (8-1) All around solid, no glaring weaknesses
- OLE MISS (9-1) Get Florida next with crowd wanting Kiffin to be next UF coach
- BYU (8-1) Paper tiger? Lost big against best competition of the season
- OREGON (8-1) What is their best win? At Penn State? Iowa?
- TEXAS (7-2) At Georgia next, and if they lose, they may be out of the playoff race
- VANDERBILT (8-2) I love the way this team competes
- OKLAHOMA (7-2) End with Bama, Missouri, and LSU. Win them all and they’re a playoff team
- GEORGIA TECH (8-1) Carry that ACC banner. By that, I mean lose in catastrophic fashion like the other teams do
- UTAH (7-2) Need help to get to Big 12 title game
- MIAMI (7-2) Finally righted the ship against woeful Syracuse
- NOTRE DAME (7-2) Best win is USC which looks better this week
- SOUTHERN CAL (7-2) Win over Michigan keeps them one spot above Wolverines
- MICHIGAN (7-2) Freshman QB continues to improve
- PITTSBURGH (7-2) Notre Dame game this week is huge for playoff implications
- VIRGINIA (8-2) Lost starting QB, then lost to Wake Forest
- CINCINNATI (7-2) Still have BYU and TCU left on the schedule
- LOUISVILLE (7-2) Mistake after mistake in home loss to Cal
- SOUTH FLORIDA (7-2) On track for Group of 5 playoff build… unless
- JAMES MADISON (8-1) JMU can sneak in there. Only loss was at Louisville and they were competitive in that game
- HOUSTON (8-2) Huge comeback to knock off UCF in Space Game
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