Another weekend of weird games. I've been having conversations online with Neanderthals. You know, the folks who say things like "muh team beat ranked teams" and "muh team beat that team and should be ranked ahead.” Seriously, if we do not move past this ancient way of thinking, we'll never get a real playoff. And they believe in the old crap they same way the folks of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project believed Jim Jones. Maybe we can move them to Guyana?
Speaking of the playoff, the first CFI (College Football Invitational) rankings hit on Tuesday. Any bets that Bama is #2? Well hey, if they can provide a fake playoff, so can I!
Anyway, my preview was a bit of a mess. How many did I miss on? Ugh.
#1 Notre Dame 44
#22 North Carolina 34 - This could be a game that solidifies ND as a contender in the eyes of the Commies...er, I mean Committee.
Meh, not very impressive, but a win is a win?
#2 Georgia 34
#59 Florida 7 - Hmm...which Florida shows up? I expect UGA to do their thing even if JT can't go. Smart has said things like he's doing "a good job" and he hasn't seen "a lot of limitations" which sounds like code for "We're going with the short guy."
Nailed it.
#3 Michigan 33
#26 Michigan State 37 - Not as close a game as the AP wants you to believe.
Much closer than I would have believed, but knowing that Harbaugh is incapable of making 2nd half adjustments, not surprising.
#4 Cincinnati 31
#113 Tulane 12 - Fickell and squad need to dominate.
Not exactly a dominant performance, despite the score. We'll need to see what the committee says to see if I was right.
#5 Oklahoma State 55
#120 Kansas 3 - yawn...maybe? I feel like the Cowboys may be out to prove something.
Yep, proved a point.
#7 Wake Forest 45
#102 Duke 7 - Definitely yawn
zzzzzzz...
#8 Iowa 7
#12 Wisconsin 27 - This one is being overlooked by too many people. Watch out for the Badgers. Iowa has had 2 weeks to stew over the Purdue loss, which is probably worse than just going the next weekend.
Nailed it.
#9 Ole Miss 20
#28 Auburn 31 - Can Kiffin keep it going? He's so inconsistent. Maybe the real Bo Nix will show up for Auburn? If he does, this could be a barn burner with him and Corral.
OK, I'm taking partial credit on this one. Not Corral's fault his 3 top receivers were out.
#10 Penn State 24
#11 Ohio State 33 - I expect OSU to hang 50 on these guys, too. That said, PSU always gets way up for the Buckeyes, but I'm completely unimpressed with their offense.
Still unimpressed with PSU O, and OSU looked terrible.
#13 Oklahoma 52
#67 Texas Tech 21 - If TT plays D, we could see OU's first loss of the season. Probably not, though. It's better to be lucky than good.
Yup, "probably not."
#14 BYU 66
#15 Virginia 49 - A UVa win will bring them to the spotlight. A BYU win does the same.
And the light shines on Provo!
#16 Minnesota 41
#93 Northwestern 14 - Fitz will need a lot of help here!
Help not received.
#17 Purdue 28
#84 Nebraska 23 - Watch out for a Husker upset!
Never mind.
#18 Oregon 52
#116 Colorado 29 - yawn
zzzzz...
#19 Baylor 31
#34 Texas 24 - Does Sark have some magic left this season?
No, he does not.
#20 Pittsburgh 34
#53 Miami (FL) 38 - I don't expect Pitt to struggle here as the Canes have disappointed all season.
Well, Pitt didn't really struggle as Miami stuck that dagger in early and performed a mercy kill.
#24 San Diego State 20
#40 Fresno State 30 - Danger game for SDSU!
Stranger danger! Nailed it.
#25 Kentucky 17
#37 Mississippi State 31 - I love Mike Leach, win or lose!
Were there any good Leechisms during postgame?
Top 25
I trust we don't have to have the same old conversations about how teams got to where they are? Or why Michigan is still #3 (hint: it's the 1st lvl points and OW%)?
So let's talk about the movers!
- Ohio State moved up 7 spots after beating Penn State in an ugly, sloppy game by both teams. I don't know what Ryan Day was thinking. I mean, after you've been stuffed 8 or 10 times trying to run up the middle against a 8 man box, you'd think maybe to try something different? I dunno, I'm just a guy who watches the games.
- BYU moved up 9 spots after a thorough drubbing of 6-3 UVA. The Cougs (usually) do not schedule cupcakes, and they get properly rewarded for it when they win.
- Baylor moved up 8 spots after dumping the hapless Longhorns. Seems that the best way to beat Texas is to give them a head start.
- UVA dropped the 9 spots that BYU climbed.
- Cincinnati and OkSt dropped 4 spots after wins over teams that are so bad they may as well be FCS schools.
- Ole Miss dropped 13 spots(!) after losing to 6-2 Auburn...
- ...who leapt up 11 spots from outside the top 25 to #17
- And the big mover of the week, Michigan State jumps up 19 (NINETEEN!) spots from #26 to #7 after beating the previously undefeated Wolverines.
I just want to be clear: teams that win (against FBS schools) yet fall in the rankings do so because the teams they beat did not offer up enough points on any level to keep up with teams who beat much better schools.
Example: Cincinnati beat Tulane which rewarded the Bearcats with 0.1077 1st level points, while Michigan State beat UM and earned 0.9770 1st level points. So both teams won, but we can easily see that the MSU win was much better than the UC win. Think of it as a race to the most points.
So, how about some playoff fun? That's why we're here, right?
Ray's Final Four
I'm pretty sure that if this particular playoff ever happens, the ENTIRE South would look like Scanners:
Really, this is the argument for an expanded playoff. How about we look at that. We'll try a doubling.
Ray's Elite Eight
I feel like this would be a lot of fun, just to see Bama in The Big House in December! If we want to swap 7 and 8 to avoid a rematch in round 1, that's fine with me. Still, we're leaving out a lot of schools. Let's do more!
Ray's Sweet Sixteen
How would this work? We'll need a few changes from the NCAA to have 16 teams in a 4 round playoff.
- Limit teams to 10 regular season games. Yes, this is going backward a little, but the NCAA will try to give lip service to "player health" even though everyone knows they could not care less so long as money is flowing. So, 10 games.
- 10 games makes sure that every regular season game matters more than they do now. It encourages scheduling strong out of conference games, too. Why?
- 8 in-conference games required for all conferences wishing to participate in the playoff.
- If a conference does not want to participate, it can leave open dates to schedule teams from participating conferences who will not make the top 16. Since those teams only have 10 scheduled, they can add 2 at the end if they want.
- Playoff teams are selected using the Massey Composite rankings.
- No more votes.
- No more eye tests
- No more bias.
- Higher seeded teams get home games in the first 2 rounds.
- If you're knocked out, you can still go to a bowl game for 12 or 13 total games that season.
- Top 4 work just like it is now.
Yes, there would be some serious changes. Still, we get as much football as we do now, and the playoff is actually a playoff! Change for the better is good, and we should embrace it no matter how scary it may seem.
I moved OkSt and Wisky, OU and Iowa to keep from having in-conference 1st round games. Other than that, does this not look like much more fun that the current BS we get from the Central Committee?
So, what do you guys think? Should I run for King of CFB to fix the playoff?
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