The college football playoff rankings are a complete joke. They are fast approaching BCS status. The Big-12 is being disrespected and misrepresented while Ohio State is receiving way too much credit.
So the college football playoff rankings look like this: Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Mississippi State, TCU, Ohio State and Baylor.
My first issue with these ranking are the positions of Baylor and TCU. Both Baylor and TCU have one loss. Baylor lost at West Virginia and TCU lost to Baylor. So I ask you why is Baylor not ranked ahead of TCU? What argument could one possibly have for ranking Baylor behind a team they beat? If you look at common opponents take Oklahoma for example, TCU beat Oklahoma by one score in Fort Worth while Baylor beat Oklahoma by five scores in Norman. Let’s look at Kansas.
Baylor beat Kansas by six scores while TCU beat them by one score. Some people may argue that TCU played a tougher non-conference schedule. TCU played Minnesota, an FCS team and SMU while Baylor played SMU, an FCS school and Buffalo. So looking at those one will find that the difference is Minnesota and Buffalo. Baylor scheduled a home-home-away series with Buffalo back in 2009 when Buffalo was coming off a MAC Championship. TCU scheduled Minnesota in a home-home series when Minnesota was bringing up the rear in a not-so-impressive Big-10. Should we really punish Baylor for Buffalo’s fall-off? Should we really reward TCU for scheduling Minnesota that has suddenly found something under Jerry Kill? Keep in mind Minnesota a few years ago was losing to FCS teams like North Dakota State and South Dakota. And why is Minnesota even ranked No. 25 at the moment? They have squeaky close wins over Northwestern and Purdue in Minneapolis. They own a blowout loss to TCU and home loss to Oho State and oh by the way a loss to Illinois. Illinois! TCU should not be rewarded for beating an overrated Minnesota team that they scheduled years ago when the Golden Gophers barley had a pulse.
My other beef with the ranking is the placement of Ohio State. They jumped Baylor after they beat Minnesota by one score and I have already gone over why Minnesota is vastly overrated. Ohio State’s resume is pretty bare. They own road wins over Penn State and Michigan State, but they lost a home game to ACC bottom-feeder Virginia Tech. Now I know Ohio State scheduled that game years ago when the Hokies were better, but losing at home to Virginia Tech by two scores is inexcusable if you want to be considered for the playoff. A home loss to a two-win ACC program is putrid.
If Baylor wins out and does not jump the likes of Ohio State and TCU the playoff has as many, if not more, flaws than the BCS system had. If resumes are nearly identical like TCU and Baylor’s are then the deciding factor should be head-to-head. If a team like Ohio Sate loses at home by two scores versus a two-win ACC team they should not even be considered for the playoff.
