Do what’s normal.
That’s all the College Football Playoff committee had to do with its first set of rankings Tuesday, and it didn’t.
Instead, it invited a trap. It invited back SEC Bias theory. It invited in East Coast Bias theory. It just had to put a one-loss team in the No. 4 spot. It had to throw Texas A&M in that spot. That’s not normal.
Maybe it’s the made-for-television drama, but there’s no need for it this early. Let the games do that.
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The first three spots are easy. Alabama is an obvious No. 1. You can flip-flop Clemson and Michigan in the next two spots. Easy money. Washington, the fourth undefeated team in a Power 5 conference, is the natural fit at No. 4.
Instead, the committee went for Texas A&M.
— It invited a trap. Why put a team in the No. 4 spot that is in the back seat to Alabama in the SEC West, might not play in a conference championship game and could easily finish with one more loss?
— It’s inviting in SEC Bias theory. Good luck on talk radio Wednesday explaining that away. The justification might be that the Aggies’ opponents have a combined record of 53-43, a winning percentage of .522. They beat three ranked teams, but UCLA, Arkansas and Tennessee are no longer ranked. The best win on Texas A&M’s schedule is probably Auburn, which wasn’t ranked at the time.
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— It’s inviting in East Coast Bias theory. How many times have you heard, “I really like Washington, but those Pac-12 games are just so gosh darn late.” The Huskies are an excellent team on the both sides of the ball, and they scored wins against Stanford and Utah. Still, the combined record of the Huskies’ opponents is 47-51, a winning percentage of .480.
The committee invited a one-loss team to the No. 4 spot. That’s really the end of it. Washington is an undefeated team in a Power 5 conference that has won the big games on its schedule. Sure, it’s just one set of rankings, and the Huskies still have games against Cal, USC, Arizona State and Washington State. They are still on track to get back to that No. 4 spot if they win those games and finish unbeaten. This, however, is a strong signal that a one-loss Pac-12 team will be left out of the playoff.
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They put the pressure on Washington and took it off Texas A&M. That’s not fair, and it’s a weird precedent to set as the third year of the College Football Playoff enters the November stretch. There are a lot of weird things that could happen in between, and there’s one piece of advice for the committee moving forward.
Let the games do the talking.
And do what’s normal.
