Ray's Rankings Week 13

I guess the big news of the weekend is OSU having to cancel their game with Illinois due to COVID issues. We know that Day tested positive, but that's about it. The school is trying to stay below B1G thresholds that would lock down the program.

The real issue is now number of games played. If the Buckeyes cannot play MSU or UM, they could possibly be kept out of the B1G championship game, which in turn could jeopardize their shot at the playoff (of course, in my system they haven't played enough games to break into the top 4 anyway).

Which games did you enjoy on Saturday? 

• I think that NC played ND very well, with the Irish athletic advantage showing through in the 4th quarter.
• Iowa State might have hammered the final nail in Tom Herman's coffin.
• Oregon gives up 22 points in the 4th quarter to lose to Oregon State. I watched the end of that one, good stuff.
• Northwestern's QB Ramsey looked awful.
• Mac Jones looked awesome!
• UGA rushed for over 300 yards vs South Carolina, over 200 in the first half. Easiest game of JT Daniels' life.
• How does Harbaugh lose to 0-5 PSU? At home?
• Kiffin over Leach - could be interesting to see what Leach does with the Air Raid with players recruited into it in a couple of years.
• Greg Schiano has Rutgers believing hard!
• UW comes back from 21 down at half to score 24 unanswered and hold the Utes scoreless in the 2nd half.

Here is my current top 25:

You probably noticed the lack of B1G teams near the top. This is what happens when everyone else has played 8 or 9 and you've played 4 or 5. While I think that OSU is one of the top 4 teams in the country (yes, even with their weird defensive issues), I don't get to make that call here. 

Because this is an unusual year, I have given more weight to G5 teams and changed the FCS schools to 0pt for a loss instead of my usual -1pt. This helps Clemson and Cincinnati a lot (BYU too, but not as much).

There were also a lot of games cancelled. This is really getting ugly, and it would not surprise me to see the Pac12 and B1G fail to make the playoff simply because of missed games. I've seen a lot of people say that's a good thing. To those people I say to pull your heads out. I get that you want to see 4 SEC teams in the playoff (or you just hate OSU). There is never a case where less football is better than more football. 

Have you ever looked up how AP pollsters are selected? Check this out: 

https://tinyurl.com/y5xefgas

A key passage:

"...the voters are listed on the AP’s college football website and their selections are made public.

Which, naturally, means criticism from fans who don’t agree with their selection. Some voters face enough grief that they don’t want to return the following season, but otherwise to vote in a poll and have such an influence on the standings of college football is obviously a prestigious honor.

However, in Walker’s case, covering the Southeastern Conference is often a leading factor on being selected to vote in the poll. [emphasis added]

“I want someone looking at good competition,” she said. Hence, a writer covering MTSU may be very talented but probably isn’t going to see many teams eligible for the AP Top 25 in the Sun Belt Conference."

So if you ever wondered why certain conferences always seem to be at the top, here's one solid reason. The AP ensures that voters cover only the conferences they deem to be worthy. God forbid they pick a voter who might be objective.

This is why an objective and completely transparent system is needed for ranking teams. Ya?