There’s the oft-overused “low hanging fruit,” and then there are vultures. If you ever watch vultures, they’re painfully lazy. They hang around areas where stuff gets run over for the most part, and as if to not tax themselves too much, wait for it to be dead, and then go eating.
A car whizzes by, they move just enough to not get bulldozed over by a Honda Civic, and then they go back to eating.
This is sort of a vulture piece. You can list probably 50 things about any “poll” that seems out of whack. The CFB Playoff committee has earned some measure of respect for how they finish things out. Getting there is a bit of a clogged toilet, however.
Granted, past the first four teams, it doesn’t matter how right or wrong they are. They could get the top four right and then just list Sun Belt teams and it wouldn’t really matter. Still, if you screw up a bunch later on in the poll, it stands to reason that your judgement can be questioned on the first four. Unless you’re just doing the bare minimum … which in this case, would end up being fine.
As of the rankings Tuesday night, here’s where they’re screwing up.
1. Really, Stanford is nine spots better than Northwestern? If only they’d played … oh, wait.
The head to head thing seems to be out of grasp of the committee at this point. While we’ll get onto the less egregious error here in a bit, ranking two teams with the same record nine spots apart makes sense … if you have the team that actually won the game betwixt them as the higher ranked one.
It wasn’t some mirage. The Internet says that Northwestern actually beat Stanford still. Someone should send the committee the link. Northwestern’s two losses? Top 15 Michigan and top six, undefeated Iowa. Stanford’s? Barely ranked Oregon at home and … well … Northwestern.
The Issue: it calls into question the committee’s value of teams actually defeating one another versus the ever ambiguous, always called upon “eye test.” It also suggests that this committee in part values team name, as Stanford’s recent success versus Northwestern’s seems to be in play here. That’s crap. Team name should matter nada when doing these things.
2. Michigan one spot ahead of Utah? If only they’d playe … eh, you get the point.
Look, the writer here is a Michigan homer and he thinks this smells of dirty socks soaked in cheap scotch whiskey. While yes, it is true and often overlooked that teams actually do improve over the course of a season, Utah played like crap against Michigan and still won. They’ve probably improved as well. Yes, they lost to two non-great teams, but why is it all about losses? Why can’t it be about … you know … wins? One of which Utah has over Michigan.
The Issue: Other than the aforementioned with Northwestern and Stanford, it makes you wonder if the committee values “who you lost to” over “who you actually defeated.” It’s also an odd juxtaposition from NW and Stanford, as in this case, the Big Ten team is getting the benefit of the doubt over the Pac-12 team it lost to as opposed to visa versa in the other case. Something’s rotten in Denmark. And on any music put out by Lady Gaga. And in this poll.
3. Injuries apply to some, but not others
TCU has gone free falling, from around the top five to now 18th after a slap fight win over moribund Kansas this past weekend at home. Yes, it followed a loss to Oklahoma State. Obviously Trevone Boykin and now Josh Doctson are questionable for Oklahoma. Problem is, they seem to be being held to a higher standard. Baylor got shelled at home by Oklahoma, and to be frank, wasn’t overly competitive during the game. Both are missing their starting quarterback. Yet, Baylor only dropped four spots losing at home to a one-loss Sooner team while TCU has been punished handily for WINNING. The Horned Frogs dropped three spots for losing to the Pokes last week, and SEVEN spots for a banged-up win over Kansas.
The Issue: translation: winning is often less impressive than losing, and you will be punished accordingly if you don’t beat teams by 50 that we think are terrible. Also, how we treat injuries is completely inconsistent. Deal with it.
Tune in next week for more lunacy.
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