Confession time: I didn’t watch the College Football Playoff show last night. I don’t intend to watch any more of them until it’s time for the selection of the semi-finals pool. And I only watched the start of the first show to see how full of themselves ESPN and the selection committee were.
What they’re doing is pointless from a settle it on the field perspective. It exists purely for broadcast fodder.
The only thing more pointless than the weekly votes themselves is the weekly tea leaf-reading they inspire. Using Year2’s example, I get that dropping Ole Miss down as much as the committee did seems like an overreaction, but in the vast scheme of things, what does it matter? Mississippi is a two-loss team now, playing in college football’s toughest neighborhood with its best offensive player gone for the season. Toast, in other words.
And as far as what the move reveals about the selection committee’s mindset, that’s about the same as Ole Miss’ chances of climbing back into the top four. There are no rules here. Nor is there a window into the vote itself, despite the many protestations about transparency. In the end, the committee will do whatever the hell it wants. Because it can. Which is how the conference commissioners who designed this process want it to be.
So quit worrying about what they’re doing. It just doesn’t make any difference.
Get The Picture 
The people getting up in arms over this stuff are falling for ESPN’s ploy. The rankings are useless until all games are played and these shows should be viewed as such, but the sheep who follow this crap can’t help themselves. What does it matter that AUB is 1st or 11th with UGA and Bama on the road still to come? ESPN spent too much on the CFB playoff to not get some extra programming, but it’s a waste of time as nothing matters until all games are played.
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yep.
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I have not watched either week. I agree with you. It is pointless othere than ESPN programming, not just Tuesdays at 7: 00 but also for ESPN webpage, radio, television and podcast content.
The playoff selection process is far worse than the BCS, in my opinion.
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Yes. Not just ESPN either. All my podcasts devote some time to it. I skip past it.
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Selection committee. Search committee. Let the coaches poll be it. Top 10.
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How can you care about football anymore?
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Heard Hancock today on radio on he was asked that exact question about why 25 teams and why this early. Short answer from the former BCS shill, is “that is how we did it with the BCS and the public expects it”. The guy never got the unhappiness with the BCS so how could be detect the need for change. From the dialogue about “the process” they go through every week, it seems to be working well, at least to me who disliked the Coach’s Poll and computers being the inputs we relied on.
As you said, this should have started later in November, and we don’t need all the specificity of numbers, although this committee’s final rankings outside the Top 4 will determine some bowl matchups and the highest ranking, non Power 5 team will get a major bowl bid. Last week it was ECU, who lost and is non-ranked by the Committee. This means they will have to select someone for this, even if not ranked in their Top 25.
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Mac….I am sure you will let me know if you disagree, but is not the whole playoff thing more about selling toilet paper and viagra than playing football?
The Committee is just window dressing for the TV football folks, or that’s the way it appears to me.
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THAT is funny. Amen
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I don’t think the “whole playoff thing” is about that but the Tuesday night updates on ESPN certainly looks to be just another commercial adventure. They could have just waited longer to begin the process, or not tried to accomplish this with a 30 minute show as it brings about more questions than it answers.
The discussions after that updated list is announced has spurred some very good discussions on satellite radio shows. It is all incomplete at this point because winning a conference championship is one of their inputs and that cannot even be factored in yet. The discussion is mostly about how “quality wins” seem to trump “quality losses” so far and always about SOS. Very interesting, but to me it just illustrates why the conference champions need a spot because we will never agree on scheduling differences with 127 unique teams in the D1 pool.
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I have not watched and find the whole thing to be a huge joke. I might be just be a trouble maker at heart. I know its is improbable but what if this Georgia team wins out and wins in Atlanta against a no loss or 1 loss sec west team? Does the committee decide to take another sec team over the sec champion therefore making the conference championships meaningless or do they save face by not inviting any sec teams into their little playoff and risk the entire experiment being labeled a failure? There is too much money wrapped up in the conference championship games to disregard them and make them irrelevant.
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If all of the other 4 Power 5 conference champs have 1 loss or fewer… you can bet your ass the SEC will be left out.
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And that would make twice in the last 9 years that an SEC Champion did not play for a national title… but the two teams would only be 1 team bookending this 9 year run. Guess who
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You are correct. In the best of all possible worlds at this point, if Missouri loses and Georgia wins out and then goes on to win the SEC Championship, we will not get into the final four. A two loss team isn’t getting in. Not even a two loss team with two decent losses. We’d be a two loss team with two crappy losses. Two really crappy losses to be honest. No way we would get in. Which makes this the most probable outcome for us this year. Either that, or we beat an undefeated team in the SEC Championship and THEY get into the final four as a one loss team and we don’t, despite being conference champion. Come to think of it, THIS is the most probable outcome for us.
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Hey, if we can’t make it, I’m certainly rooting for the SEC to get shut out. I had no problem pulling for LSU vs Ohio State (even if I think we were better), but overall that “streak” did nothing but hurt UGA in recruiting. So bring on LSU over Bama, UGA over Auburn, Bama over Auburn, Bama over MissSt, and Ole Miss over Miss St. Give ’em all 2 or more losses while TCU, Oregon, Michigan St. sit at 1-loss and FSU goes undefeated. And then Oregon blows out FSU by 40+.
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If UGA wins on something other than a fluke last minute play, then you have to look at the other teams. In your hypothetical, let’s assume FSU and Oregon are in. If Mich St., TCU (or KSt / Baylor…whoever survives the Big12 with 1 loss), and Notre Dame are all still with 1 loss, we have no argument, and frankly, neither would Miss St. as their loss (to us) is probably “bad” vs. the others. But what if there is only one remaining 1 loss team…say Mich St. but TCU/Big12 winner and Notre Dame have a 2nd loss? (There won’t be any other 1 loss teams due to games left to be played other than Bama). I like UGA over TCU (or any Big12 winner with 2 losses since they don’t have a championship game). Notre Dame will be tough to jump, but same rationale…one less game. If we thump both Auburn and Miss St. then we have a strong argument. Bama would be screaming and could be at 1 loss in this scenario too.
This, of course, will not happen, so don’t lose any more sleep on it.
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Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
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This mess is ruining every game you watch on TV. No matter who is playing the announcers are discussing who belongs in the 4 rather than describing the game. Just like basketball by Christmas the announcers drone on about who gets in the tournament.
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Best case for UGA would be winning out big, Auburn beating Bama (for stength of schedule), Miss St winning out (for strength of schedule), then UGA beating a #1 Miss St. in the Champ game. At that point, UGA would at least have an argue meant of beating 2 West teams.
At that point we could have a chance based on what happens elsewhere in the country, but it would be a very slim chance.
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This whole selection committee rankings and ESPN dribble is garbage. ESPN is the worldwide garbage peddler. They get in their pre-production meetings and say, “Hey Danny Kannell – Tweet something out that disses the SEC..heeheehee…Like a bunch of preteens at a sleepover…
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