College Football Week 8 thread

Oops. repost fail ;D

 

So and so lost to a team that lost to a team that barley beat a team that lost to a team that whipped a team that lost to a team......

Fun!

 

Vortex Of Domination.

It's going to be completely unjust, and yet still hilarious, when a two-loss SEC West team makes it. The normally dour Jim Delany will look like he has been sucking on a pineapple.

 

No, but the difference is if Alabama finishes 12-1, its resume would get a boost from wins over Mississippi State, Auburn and probably Georgia. One of those teams could be ranked No. 1, another between 6 & 10 and the other probably 15-ish (depending on who wins Auburn-Georgia).

If Michigan State finishes 12-1, it will have beaten an Ohio State team ranked 11-15 and probably a Top 15-20-ish Nebraska team it has already beaten once.

 

Did you guys catch Lou Holtz this weekend?

http://deadspin.com/whats-lou-holtz-saying-here-1648171387

 

I think the only way a two-loss SEC team gets in is if they win the SEC title game.

I don't think the playoff committee wants to set a precedent where a multi-loss, non conference championship winning team is judged to be one of the four best teams in the country.

But I also think that the committee doesn't want to hear the complaints if the SEC gets shut out, which could happen, if the stars align just right and the proper sacrifices of virgins are made.

 

To "win out" means to complete the rest of the slate with victories. Those who are undefeated now have "won thus far."

As for the speculation . . . it's speculation.

 

For the record, I was never arguing for a two-loss SEC team (of which there currently aren't any that are in serious playoff contention, anyway).

What I said was, Michigan State will be in the mix if it goes 12-1. But I don't think the Spartans are automatically in the Top 4 just because they've dominated the fourth-best conference in the country for a calendar year and played 2 1/2 good quarters at Oregon.

 

Of course the SEC doesn't have a two-loss team in serious contention, yet, but that I don't think that will be the case by the end of November.

Perfect storm will be Ole Miss running the table, losing to a two or three loss Georgia team in the SEC championship game and Alabama winning out. Alabama, being Alabama, would likely get the nod over either of them but holy Hell that would be entertaining as a team that didn't finish first in its own division or win its conference championship game, would make the playoffs.

 

Let's go back to basics here. The playoff four will be selected by a committee. Probably all of us here have covered at least one committee and god help us, some may have served on one. What is the primary element of committee decision making. Most of the time, it's ass covering. This would go triple for a committee making its first decision in a high stakes situation. Therefore, I believe the selection committee will consciously or unconsciously make its most difficult calls on the basis of offending the fewest stakeholders possible, meaning, I don't think they'd pick a two-loss SEC team as that conference's second entry over a one-loss Big Ten or Pac-12 champ it it shakes out that way.

 

Sure, it's possible. But I'd rather we cross that bridge when we get to it.

It's entirely possible (if not just as likely) Ole Miss or Mississippi State wins out, and the Alabama-Auburn winner has only one loss. It's also possible you have an 11-1 Iron Bowl winner and an 11-1 Egg Bowl winner (if Alabama beats Mississippi State and Auburn beats Ole Miss in the weeks leading up).

All this preemptive outrage about SEC bias is just dumb when we're barely past the halfway mark.

 

A lot of this will sort itself out over the next couple of weeks anyhow. I wouldn't waste a lot of time doing the what-if algebra just yet.