Running 2015 College Football Rankings thread

Virginia Tech 2014 and South Carolina 2015 are not similar losses. Va Tech went 7-6 and beat Duke, which was also ranked at the time.

South Carolina is 3-9.

 

Yeah, they had to back then. Now they're taking easy street because they feel like they're with the in crowd.

Their scheduling is bad. It's not Baylor or Okie State pathetic, but it's clear they're merely trying to find three games they can't lose.

 

Fair point, and you could argue the 2014 Big 10 schedule played by Ohio State was tougher than UNC's ACC slate this year.

Still, the words "conference champion" carry a lot of weight with the committee.

 

That's fine.

But what is the point of ranking TCU two spots ahead of OSU with but one week to play? What is the committee's thinking on that particular day?

"Yeah, well, heh-heh, we'll give these fools hope for one more week before dropping the hammer."

 

I guess it's like UNC now. You can't really credit a team for a game it hasn't played yet.

 

That the Big 10 championship offers an automatic SOS turbo-boost to the winner.

Similarly, when it comes to seeding this year, although they are 4/5 now, when their result is in the books the winner will pass Oklahoma and perhaps even Alabama (though 2 or 3 doesn't really matter since there's not much of a Big 10 preference on the game site between Dallas and Miami).

 

That's the one right there. The committee was never going to let TCU in over Ohio State as long as Ohio State won. Period. Didn't matter if Ohio State won 24-21, and TCU drummed Iowa State by 100.

You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

 

How many legit OOC games are they supposed to schedule? They go home-and-home with Arkansas the next two years, and they always play SMU. Hell, almost everybody has a couple of cupcakes in there.

 

Arkansas is a pretty good one -- better than Minnesota, anyway. It's always a little tricky because it comes down to intent, I think; Tennessee might not be the greatest opponent in the history of college football, but they're pretty good, and Oklahoma willingly went there.

When Minnesota is your headline-grabbing opponent, it's pretty clear what you're trying to do. And that goes double for Baylor (marquee opponent SMU) and triple for Okie State (marquee opponent Central Michigan).

 

Here's how I think it goes. Ohio State is going to be that last-team-out-first-team-in if Clemson or Alabama lose on Saturday. If North Carolina beats Clemson (very doable) AND Florida beats Bama (highly unlikely), then Ohio State and Carolina get in over Stanford. Yes, the two FCS games on UNC's schedule will be a negative factor, but in the end I just don't think the committee takes a two-loss conference champion over a one-loss conference champ.

 

I knew Stanford should have scheduled Northwestern State instead of Northwestern.

 

There was one year where Michigan State basically got left out of the national championship game because they lost to Notre Dame. Basically, there was no benefit to playing the game - which was always Bo Schembechler's complaint, as well. You go undefeated in the Big Ten, you're in. Why risk it?

In Stanford's case, the Northwestern game was especially asinine. They played at 11 a.m., 8 or 9 Palo Alto time, in a road game 3/4 of the way across the continent, without so much as a down of football under their belts at that point. Brilliant scheduling.