Did your head explode on Halloween?
You might still be steaming even a day after the release of the first College Football Playoff rankings if you’re a fan of Alabama, Wisconsin, Miami, Ohio State or Oklahoma … or even a few other teams.
>> If the Tide are your favorites, you may be unhappy with the committee’s choice of Georgia at No. 1. ’Bama is undefeated and has been atop the coaches and Associated Press polls all season. Don’t they know you are Alabama???
>> The Badgers and Hurricanes (fourth and ninth in the AP poll) are also undefeated. But none of their combined 15 wins have come against Top 25 competition. So the committee ranked them ninth and 10th, behind a bunch of teams that have lost a game.
>> No. 5 in the CFB rankings is the first loser, since just the top four make the playoff. That means Oklahoma fans can’t like their spot. Sooners will tell you they deserve a higher ranking because Oklahoma won at Ohio State, and Clemson — which is No. 4 — doesn’t have a better win. Also, Oklahoma’s one loss is to Iowa State (6-2 and ranked 15th by the committee), while Clemson’s is to unranked Syracuse (4-4).
>> Followers of the Pac-12 might feel slighted, too — although they shouldn’t. You can blame Arizona State for that, for knocking off previously unbeaten Washington, which started the season in the top 10. The Huskies got the Pac-12’s highest ranking from the committee at No. 12. That might even be too generous; you don’t need an East Coast bias to see this is a down year for the West. It makes for an interesting league when anyone can beat anyone, but it’s not good for getting a team into the playoff.
>> You either love or hate Notre Dame at No. 3 … because you either love or hate Notre Dame. I think it’s OK the Irish are there because they’re the best one-loss team (that one loss is by one point to Georgia). We’ll learn in the coming weeks if ND deserves its lofty perch, since it finishes the season with Wake Forest, Miami, Navy and Stanford. The Deacons (5-3) are better than usual this year, and the other three are either in the AP Top 25 or have been.
>> With a four-team playoff, there’s no room for Cinderellas. Heck, there’s not even room for the best from all of the Power Five conferences.
What happens if Iowa State wins out? If the Cyclones do, they will have added a win against Oklahoma State (ranked by the CFB committee No. 11 at 7-1) and a second victory over Oklahoma or TCU (both currently in the committee’s top 10) in the restored Big 12 championship game. It’s very unlikely there would be room for any two-loss team in the four-team setup, and the Big 12 would be left out in the cold again.
While we’re at it, it’s un-American how an unbeaten champ from the American Conference would be treated. Central Florida is 7-0, but the committee ranks them at No. 18. Their most impressive nonconference win is against Maryland, which isn’t all that impressive. And beating Memphis — despite it being a very solid squad ranked No. 23 by the committee — a second time in the conference championship game wouldn’t matter. UCF gets the consolation prize of a New Year’s bowl game.
And that’s life when you’re not in the Power Five, or Notre Dame.
It’s also another reason why an eight-team tournament would be so much better than four. Some year, a Group of Five team will be a legitimate contender. It could even be this year — UCF has beaten everyone it’s played by at least two touchdowns, except Navy (ranked at the time), which it beat by 10.
The good news for fans of most of the traditional powers with no loss or just one is that this first week of rankings doesn’t really mean anything — well, except verification of what we already knew about the Pac-12; because of its unimpressive nonconference slate (Rutgers, Montana and Fresno State) there was no way Washington could withstand a loss and still hope for the playoff. And that affects the entire conference, as does USC getting manhandled by Notre Dame.
But it’s still fun to talk about. And as disrespected Alabama and some of the others might feel right now, the committee has shown in previous years it doesn’t stay married to its earlier rankings like some stubborn voters in the media and coaches polls do.
Now, go find the pieces, re-capitate yourself and wait for next week’s rankings.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quickreads.
