CFB Playoff Rankings

Why would you think they are bias against Baylor? I can see you saying that with Ohio St since it is a national program but why would they be bias in favor of TCU?

 

I don't know that there's a bias. That's not really what I'm saying. I'm saying I don't like sports where winners are determined by how a team "looks" subjectively.

 

TCU over Baylor isn't all about the resume, it's about what they're seeing on the field. TCU appears to have the more complete team. It can pass, run, and defend the pass and run (except for the 96pts they gave up to Baylor - lulz).

That's just what I've been hearing. Ultimately if both teams win out, as I understand it, Baylor should still finish ahead of TCU. But that doesn't mean they'll be in the playoff.

 

This is where it loses me. You don't have to do a subjective test...in most sports, the teams play one another and you get the winner from the scoreboard --- regardless of who people think "looks" better.

Most college teams in the discussion haven't and won't play one another.

But that's not so with Baylor and TCU. They played. There was a winner. The scoreboard showed it. I actually watched that game between these two teams. One team won...the other lost. I don't need to guess at it anymore...I saw it.

Anything other than deciding it on the field is just silly to me. Are we lining up to win each week...to beat opponents...or are we lining up to look good? Apparently it's not enough to win.

It's always been that way to some degree in college football. It's just particularly frustrating in a season where you have the hint of an alternative to that with a 4 team playoff.

 

Not saying that what you're saying is wrong, but if this is what they're basing their rankings off of then the system is a joke.

It shouldn't matter who's "more complete". The results should be what matter, and TCU lost to Baylor. I see no reason that Baylor should be behind TCU, especially with TCU's horrid Kansas performance.

Though...if they win out and Baylor jumps them, all is well. I just think it's silly if the eye test is what has TCU over Baylor right now.

 

God I'm so sick of Ohio St., every year they run that garbage conference up there and end up in the National Title mix. I don't think Baylor and TCU are much better, I think they are both products of a fairly weak conference, but I do think they are both better than Ohio St.

FWIW, I would personally have the Egg Bowl winner in the playoff, even if its Ole Miss. Not that I think it will play out that way, but I think Ole Miss is a better team than Ohio St.,TCU and Baylor.

 

Do they? Baylor scores more pointsand gives up fewer points than TCU. Baylor has given up 30+ pts to 1 Big12 opponent (TCU). TCU has done it 4 times (Baylor, Kansas, OU, WVU). I would argue Baylor does all of the things you mentioned better than TCU does.

They also have 3 common opponents so far - OU, WVU, and and Kansas. Baylor beat OU and Kansas by 30+ each. TCU beat each by 4. TCU did beat WVU by 1, while Baylor lost by 14.

 

Personally, I'm okay with factoring in the "eye test" in a significant way (apparently 1/5th). You have a group of people discussing performance in a professional, controlled way. I think the TCU/Baylor example is an absolute extreme case, one I don't neccisarily agree with, but in other circumstances I think it's something you have to include.

What if... let's say..... a team loses with its best player, a QB, out due to injury. That QB comes back, the team does exceptionally well and they're obviously the best team in football. You should be able to use that information. That's precisely what sets this apart from a computer doing everything.

This is a blend of the NCAA basketball process.

 

I should have clarified...

Eye test is definitely a factor that needs to be considered, but I think in the TCU/Baylor debate, it's largely irrelevant. They have equal records and Baylor has the head-to-head win. They have similar schedules for the most part, and arguably Baylor has performed better throughout than TCU has. Seems pretty definitive, in my opinion.

Eye test should be more important when comparing teams like Miss. State, Ohio State, etc. as teams with similar rankings but don't play common opponents or each other.

Baylor-TCU though? We know the result of their game, and I don't see how TCU deserves to be ahead of them, but as you said, likely it works itself out if Baylor wins out.

 

Jerry Palm(Former BCS/Now playoff expert) of CBS Sports makes a lot of sense in the logic the committee is using with their rankings this week. This reasoning is really dumb but they are not ready to move Baylor in front of TCU right now because TCU(10) has played one more game than the Bears(9) right now. They realized that they couldn't have Baylor directly behind a team that they beat so they moved Ohio State as a buffer between between TCU and Baylor to try to justify their rankings. Once Nebraska beats Minnesota and the Bears smoke OSU this weekend, I expect the Bears to be #5 in the playoff rankings next week barring some upset in the top 4. Minnesota will fall out and TCU and OSU will both lose a quality win even though Minnesota is awful.

He has the Bears playing Bama in the Sugar Bowl.

 

So there was talk earlier about the Big12 and SEC top teams playing each other in a big bowl game. Here's an article on it:

http://espn.go.com/college-football...bowl-new-orleans-site-marquee-big-12-sec-game

However, looking at the bowl matchups, this year's Sugar Bowl is part of the playoff. So does this matchup not exist anymore? The only places where SEC and Big12 face off are the Texas Bowl and the Liberty Bowl.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11419086/2014-15-college-football-bowl-schedule

 

I don't think head to head is always the end all, be all. Home field advantage is usually worth about 3 points, at least as far as betting lines go. Baylor won at home by 3. If Baylor had whooped them, it'd be different. But a 3 point win at home suggests that the teams are actually pretty even, and that if the game had been in Fort Worth it probably would've gone the other way. It certainly matters, but it's never been the case that the best team always wins (see Rams v. Broncos) so for me, other factors can still swing things in favor of the loser of a H2H matchup. For example, TCU's 3 point loss in Waco is a better loss than Baylor's 14 point loss at West Virginia.

Where I give Baylor the edge at the moment is in some of the common opponents games. TCU beat OU by 4. Baylor beat them by 34. TCU beat Kansas by 4. Baylor beat them 46.

I would give the edge to Baylor, but not simply because they won the head to head considering the margin of victory and location of the game.

 

Yeah, I've been confused about what's going on with that bowl.

 

In every other sport, it matters. We don't have real playoffs in college football..the regular season is the playoffs. When you beat a team and your record is identical to them, it's nonsensical to me that the team that lost that game would be ranked ahead of the other. It doesn't matter at this point...I get that...but it's still ridiculous to me.

Talking about betting lines is a complete non-starter with me. Win by 1..win by 100...you beat the team. Again, if they never play one another, I get it. But when they do? Yeah...the team that beat the other team is the one that should get the nod.

 

That's just a marketing slogan manufactured by ESPN to hype games... it's not like Baylor vs TCU was neutral field... it's not like one had home court advantage based on an earned seeding system. It's just a game.

 

How is that wrong, Ziggy? What other playoff games are there aside from 4 teams?

In every other sport, we have a sizable percentage of teams participating in a post-season tournament of some sort.

But not in college football. You're not coming out of the 6th seed to win a national championship.

The regular season is the playoffs. There isn't a "second season" to make it ok.

 

I believe it will get moved to either the Cotton or Fiesta bowl along with the Pac12 vs big 10 game.

 

This is a joke now. This Jeff Long idiot is contradicting himself every week.

 

Relax. Minnesota won while Ohio State played a close game to an unranked team while having an indirect loss to one of the worst teams in Wake Forest.

We need to crush Tech and have a convincing win against Kansas State. There's some chatter about us passing a one loss Miss State team if we handle our business. I'll have it to see it to believe it. Go Ole Miss!