1. Alabama 2. Michigan 3. Georgia 4. Cincinnati 5. Notre Dame 6. Ohio State Alabama vs Cincinnati (Cotton Bowl) Michigan vs Georgia (Orange Bowl)
Depends on which Alabama team shows up. The one that beat Georgia is unbeatable. The one that lost to A&M, and almost lost to Auburn and LSU will be eliminated by Cincinnati. Georgia will beat Michigan.
Can’t tell you how excited I am to see Georgia-Alabama again!! Rolleyes. Not saying it will happen just that it’s idiotic that it even might happen. Cincinnati is in a weak conference so don’t deserve #1 despite being undefeated… but not weak enough that they should slip out of the top 4?? michigan is a 4 point loss to the #10 team in a conference with 3 top ten teams and dominates their championship game, just after thoroughly beating the eventual #6 team and doesn’t get #1 spot? Alabama beat a Georgia team that in hindsight didn’t have that tough a schedule. They have I think two wins against a top 25 teams as it stands now and that’s Arkansas at 21 and UK at 22 the ole football powerhouses they are. Not that Michigan has dominant wins against top 25 teams outside out the last two.. but they do have those. And Cincinnati has wins against ND and Houston both decent ranked teams. Point being… rankings are stupid. Not sure how it’s not Michigan / Cincinnati 1/2 in whatever order.
Does it really matter? You'd end up with the same matchups - Michigan vs an SEC team and Cinci vs an SEC team.
of course it matters. the outcome is independent. Also it could be Cincinnati-Georgia instead as one coins certainly argue Cincy at one and GA at 4. But the outcome is independent. Here’s a simple idea… lose your conference championship game, you don’t get to then joins playoff hunt for a national title. You just had a chance to show you were better than team xyz and failed.
I don’t care what Gary Barta and the committee say - there was no way that they were going to have Alabama and Georgia play in a semifinal. I feel bad for Michigan as they got the shaft; they should have moved up to #1. Alabama better bring their “A” game when they play Cincinnati or they may find themselves not in the final. Believe me there’s a big part of me that wants to see Georgia get revenge and beat Alabama in the final but after what I saw yesterday, I have little faith in Georgia beating Alabama mainly because Georgia can’t stop Alabama’s passing game, so I am going to say it now - I would be very happy to see Georgia play Cincinnati in the final. Yea, I said it but when you have been waiting 41 years for a NC, you don’t worry about silly things like pride and revenge.
^ Exactly - yes UGA didn’t win their conference but are you really going to sit there with a straight face, Jay, and tell me that a 12-1 SEC team that had a historical season on defense, even with yesterday’s debacle notwithstanding, that they don’t belong in the top 4? Who are you proposing to take their place? A 11-1 Notre Dame team that doesn’t even play in a conference? How about a 2 loss Ohio State team that didn’t even make their own conference championship game? I guess that leaves Baylor since they won their conference but they have 2 losses. Part of the reward for going 12-0 is that if you lose game #13 (your conference championship game), that you are not all of a sudden get punished for losing one game. It’s a fact of life that the SEC is the best conference in football- just look at how many former SEC players are playing in the NFL. You don’t like it - have teams like Michigan and Cincinnati beat Georgia and Alabama when it matters and then maybe your complaint will be valid.
One last thing that I am going to say about this topic and I will just have to let it go: Kirby Smart’s refusal to go back to JT Daniels at QB over Stetson Bennett remains one of the most mind boggling decisions I have ever seen. However this is also the same guy that refused to start Justin Fields over Jake Fromme and we saw how well that turned out. All I am saying is that if you are playing a team that is high-scoring, you need to have your 5 star QB out there instead of holding a clipboard, Bennett is probably good enough for Georgia to beat Michigan but if they do make it to the NC game, then JT Daniels has to be considered an option to play, hell start, for Georgia.
Fair enough but I don't think either QB is all that good. The trenches and skill players are going to have to carry that team.
They are probably the best conference, but they also are given more opportunities to royally **** up than anyone else. The bottom half of the SEC is dog **** like every other conference. I don't particularly care one way or the other, but its something that contributes to college football being the most boring sport on the planet for me. Make a real playoff system where the SEC isn't just given participation trophies and I may be interested. thats always made sense to me. If 2 teams just played in the conference championship, why have them just play each other again? Just boring. Conferences may as well just be eliminated
The 6 teams in the SEC with losing SEC records went a combined 1-6 vs other P5 schools, with the only win being a 3 pt win over Florida State. To be fair, that included some good opponents, but also included losses to Stanford and Boston College (2nd to last and last in their respective conferences). Vandy also managed to get blown out by Eastern Tennessee State. The bottom of the SEC may be better than other bottoms of conferences, but it's definitely not clear cut and they certainly haven't shown it on the field.
Cincinnati's problem is that Alabama can run them over. They can't drop 8. They would have been better off taking on a pass happy team. That said, I hope they win.
These rankings are an insult to Baylor. Ohio State has two losses, but is ranked higher than a two-loss Big 12 champion who played (and won) one more game than them? Absurd.
If it makes you feel any better, I honestly don't care. Excited they won the conference and will play in the Sugar Bowl.
Why? Is all that matters # of wins? Baylor lost to a much crappier team in TCU. Ohio State's two losses were to ranked teams. If it makes you feel better, here's some computer rankings: http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm Ohio State is #3. Baylor is #14. These ratings take out all the human biases and only look at quality of results, not knowing team names or conferences, etc.
I don't really care either way, I just think that winning your conference (and beating the #7 team per the page you shared) should matter a little bit more when compared to a team that didn't play for their conference championship. Cool website, though! Cincinnati should probably be ranked ahead of Notre Dame in that last, though, considering that they won the head-to-head. Takes me back to the days of the BCS which I prefer to the current committee.
