A lot of pretenders got punched on the jaw yesterday. Indiana foremost among them. Ignoring strength of schedule and ranking teams purely based on records results in weaker teams being elevated in the rankings. Texas hasn't beat a single team that is still ranked even though they play in the SEC. Put they are ranked in the top four.
It was, still is and always will be idiotic the way all the conferences basically got wiped out, they should have kept things the way they were vs the nonsense that is college football today.
Says someone who, you know, actually played college football at an extremely high level.
The fumble really changed that game, lost all momentum and Ohio State capitalized. Tough place to win to begin with, need to be mistake free to win there. I am a huge BIG BLUE fan this weekend! Just never did like the Buckeyes!The Indiana dance is over.
I think the SEC Championship could be a burner if Texas can get by A&M. Rivalry games throw everything out the window, it doesn't matter how each is doing, it is going to be the game. Georgia is sitting pretty again with Ole Miss and Alabama literally laying eggs this weekend. Ole Miss really hurt on this end as I know it is good for the Horns, I hate the Gators. Alabama, I actually watched a good bit of that replay, mother of God, they looked terrible. Of course not an OU fan, but since Sabin left, I have no love for that coach who took over, so be it.
Big Court decision coming in April that could change NIL again, not sure good or bad, but it may make it slightly harder than the current pay to play scheme. The NCAA is trying to become relevant again as a governing body, we shall see. Also, still not sure I am sold on 12 team playoff, I was thinking would have been better at a smaller number.
Records are deceptive in college football. You see it every year. Some team with a soft schedule beats a string of cupcakes or catches a good program on a down year and suddenly they are ranked in the top ten. Then they play Ohio St. or Georgia and get punched on the jaw. College football needs to take strength of schedule much more seriously in the rankings or teams are going to start scheduling even more cupcake games. Clemson played the Citadel this week. It was 42-0 at halftime. A game like that at this point in the year should result in a penalty in the rankings rather than a win.The Indiana dance is over.
I would point out that Georgia scheduled Tn Tech and UMASS. They are guilty as is every other major program of putting cupcakes on the schedule. That is universal. They also had close games with a number of Conference rivals they were 10 times better than on paper. You could make this argument against every school. Technically Ole Miss came out and punched them in the mouth like they did to Texas early on. Basically, in big games, it is very tough when they are in the same class if one is off to a fast start. it happens all the time. Long story short, and especially this year, the argument can be made that every week is exciting. I give Indiana credit, they are better by leaps and bounds, they have talented football players, they got out to a decent start, however, after a crucial fumble, they literally crumbled. Is Ohio St and elite team, yes in that they have elite players, but look at their schedule too - They played Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall and basically struggled against Nebraska who has lost to a lot of teams. Again, point being, all of the top programs have many similarities this year.
Schedule strength varies significantly from team to team. In some instances, it is a matter of chance. For example, playing Michigan this year is much different from playing the Michigan team of the last couple of years. No way to know that when they are scheduled in advance. Army was undefeated with a SOS ranked 133 and got destroyed by ND. Indiana has a SOS of 106 and got blown out by Ohio St. Neither game was competitive. Both teams were vastly overrated based on their records. Many other teams with multiple losses would be undefeated with those schedules and would paste them in a head-to-head matchup. Records alone are not a great measure of how good those teams are when there are over 100 college teams with significant variations in talent. If you want the best teams ranked higher, then SOS has to be a major factor.
i would agree and say this year is just an odd year in that it is a lot of chance.
Good points. I remember that year too, incredible FUBAR in my opinion!
A complete farse, they played the march of the tomato cans, only two of their opponents won at least seven games. They only played one ranked opponent all season, preseason #3 Pitt, a team that would finish 3–7–1 and unranked. the Cougars were the only team in the WAC with fewer than four losses. They were unranked before the season started; again, a complete farse if there ever was one.
