Barry Alvarez has some advice for the selection committee, and — surprise! — it favors Wisconsin.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, who spent the past three seasons on the College Football Playoff selection committee, said Monday he would be shocked if this year’s 13-member group left out an undefeated Power 5 conference champion because of a weak nonconference schedule.
No. 9 Wisconsin, which is undefeated, was ranked behind six one-loss teams in the committee’s first ranking, raising the question if a Big Ten title would be enough to ultimately boost the Badgers into the top four or if their unimpressive résumé would keep them out.
“I think that would be very difficult to do,” said Alvarez, whose term with the committee expired in 2017. “There’s no part of me that says if you go undefeated as a Power 5 and win your conference championship, and you’re not going to be in the final four? I don’t see that. That would shock me.”
I don’t think he means “shock” in the Captain Renault sense, either.
I’m not worried, though, because I’m sure that if push came to shove, Greg McGarity would be out in front working just as hard to claim a place for Georgia. [Mic drop…]
Get The Picture 
Does McGarity get a bonus if UGA makes the CFP? If so, he will be an arm twisting fool.
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I doubt there’s incentives in any sport for Greg Mediocrity, or all of our teams would likely be significantly better.
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Wisconsin plays exactly zero ranked teams this year. More so, they are well aware that they are in a weak division and many years don’t have to play Ohio state, Michigan, or Penn State. But instead of beefing up their OOC schedule accordingly, they continue to schedule utter jokes like Utah State and FAU. Next year they play mighty Western KY and New Mexico. Yet they continue to harp that they “can’t help who we play” as an excuse anyway.
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I understand what you’re saying, but SEC East is a pretty good rebuttal for the Badgers. The only difference is ND and GT.
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Oh, come on. ND and GT are huge differences. Also, unlike Wisconsin, we played 2 of the top 3 of the other division during our regular season.
We likely will have played 2 of the top 3 CFB poll teams, and play the other one Mondays through Thursdays.
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More so, with the rotations and permanent rivals (uga/au, ut/bama, lsu/uf, etc), the schedules are pretty damn tough regardless. Wisconsin doesn’t have a permanent rival with, say, Michigan or Ohio State that they play yearly, and so on. Night and day difference overall.
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If you are saying Wisky plays a pussy schedule because it is in the BIg 10 I agree with you completely. Except for 3-4 teams the Big 10 is a weak conference.
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As I mentioned below, Wisky has eight 4 star athletes on their entire roster, with none ranked in the top 125. Yet they are 9-0 and undefeated in Big 10 play. I mean, there really isn’t anything else that needs to be said.
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I would love Wisconsin in the playoff especially if we’re the #1 seed. We would beat them like a rented mule in a semifinal game.
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Agree – very unimpressed with Wisconsin. And if you’re a believer in the ‘stars matter’ mantra as I am and has been proven to be a reliable barometer, Wisconsin’s roster only has EIGHT 4 star athletes total, with none in ranked the top 125 of their respective class.
We’d call that a horrible recruiting class; they view it as a solid roster that has helped them go undefeated in the Big 10.
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I would much rather see a Big 10 champion Wisconsin than a 1-loss Oklahoma in that semifinal. Let Bama and ND bloody each other’s noses in Pasadena while we take care of business in the Big Easy.
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Oh Gawd…another 10+ win season and bowl game against a BiGX opponent? I thought we brought Kirby in to do better than that?!
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^^This.
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…with a 13-0 record and the Big Ten championship ring…then when we beat them ‘like a rented mule’ the B10 will be revealed. I love the thought.
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Best case scenario for sure…and put me in the camp that Whiskey is in if they are undefeated and Big 10 Champs…
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Although his comments are self-serving, I think he has a point. Conference championships ought to count for something.
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Under the conference champion theory both TCU and Baylor should have gotten spots in 2014.
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Absolutely, and why we should have a playoff that guarantees the champ of all Power 5 conferences is represented. There isn’t just enough interaction between teams/conferences to exclude a team like Wisconsin. If they go undefeated, no question they deserve a spot. And no conference should get two teams in until this abbreviated playoff is expanded to 8.
Alabama scheduled FSU as an opener and was penalized last week for the lack of ranked opponents. Sure Wisconsin should schedule tougher teams, every program should, but it is impossible to know what you will actually get when you play. Who ever thought Mississippi State would be the reason UGA got the #1 slot in the initial CFP poll? Just too much subjectivity in this process. Let chaos reign.
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Remember, this is from the guy who broke his foot by hitting himself with a golf club.
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Georgia is the one SEC member that Alvarez doesn’t like and has huge respect gained from the bowl losses to UGA. We HAVE beaten him like a rented mule already. Their fans have watched their nadir develop before their very eyes in games where they have led by 28+ points only to lose to us at the last. Some of their fans would make a ‘Bama redneck blush with their simplistic “We are the best.” analysis of CFB. Shared planes with a few of their grads.
The best part would be to witness Delany come apart concerning the doormat BiGly that he resides over getting excluded because they belong to the weakest conference.
All that being said, what does our cupc…..uhh…OOC schedule look like for next year?
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Wisconsin has never led us like that. Purdue? Yes. Badgers? No.
We laid the wood to them in ‘97 and beat them again in ‘04 in Tampa.
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Senator – I love your blog but these video ads are making navigating your blog extremely painful…not to mention I can’t hear any of the videos you post because the video ads play over them and despite they’re being a mute option on the ad, when you click on it (at least when I do) it doesn’t mute the ad. Is there something I’m missing or is this just the way it is now….help.
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I don’t control the ads here, WordPress does. I’ll see if there’s anything they can tell me.
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I’m not seeing them. I have downloaded AdBlock and AdBlock for YouTube. If you use Chrome as your browser, the 2 minutes needed to download both is well worth the time.
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Senator, the Casablanca clip made my day. Thank you.
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