This article is part of our The Spread Offensive series.
We love rankings. Need some talking points? Rank anything. Greatest college football player of all-time (Herschel Walker). Best tailgate food (beer). Best appearance by a college football announcer in a movie (Verne Lundquist in Happy Gilmore). There will always be a debate. There will always be differences. The beauty is that there usually isn't a right or wrong answer.
We're impatient, too. We like to know. We want to know. Inevitably these things work themselves out, but still, rankings come out each and every week in college football. The Associated Press does rankings. The coaches do rankings. The College Football Playoff has rankings. If you ask me, I'll give you my own rankings.
Do we really need rankings every week? Probably not. But as a society we demand it. We want to know where we stand. Nay, we NEED to know where we stand. That unquenchable thirst for knowledge. And also validation.
Enough with the psychoanalysis, though. The only rankings that matter for the rest of the season are those put out by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. As an aside, I'd like to point out that the committee features a retired three-star general (Mike Gould) and Condoleezza Rice. Yes, that Condoleezza Rice. The former Secretary of State. Rest assured, there are plenty of other members with football backgrounds.
The fog is starting to clear regarding the College Football Playoff, though there is still much to be determined. Baylor and TCU felt slighted last season after being left out
We love rankings. Need some talking points? Rank anything. Greatest college football player of all-time (Herschel Walker). Best tailgate food (beer). Best appearance by a college football announcer in a movie (Verne Lundquist in Happy Gilmore). There will always be a debate. There will always be differences. The beauty is that there usually isn't a right or wrong answer.
We're impatient, too. We like to know. We want to know. Inevitably these things work themselves out, but still, rankings come out each and every week in college football. The Associated Press does rankings. The coaches do rankings. The College Football Playoff has rankings. If you ask me, I'll give you my own rankings.
Do we really need rankings every week? Probably not. But as a society we demand it. We want to know where we stand. Nay, we NEED to know where we stand. That unquenchable thirst for knowledge. And also validation.
Enough with the psychoanalysis, though. The only rankings that matter for the rest of the season are those put out by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. As an aside, I'd like to point out that the committee features a retired three-star general (Mike Gould) and Condoleezza Rice. Yes, that Condoleezza Rice. The former Secretary of State. Rest assured, there are plenty of other members with football backgrounds.
The fog is starting to clear regarding the College Football Playoff, though there is still much to be determined. Baylor and TCU felt slighted last season after being left out of the CFP. Will anyone be left at the altar in 2015? You can be sure someone won't like the final rankings. Let's take a look at what we know and what we don't know as the season enters the home stretch.
What We Know
- Alabama is the prohibitive favorite in the SEC. The Tide steamrolled LSU and have a soft schedule until the SEC Championship game against the Florida Gators. Derrick Henry has emerged as the new frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy; the list of recent standout Alabama running backs who have flourished under coach Nick Saban is staggering. Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacy, TJ Yeldon, to name a few. The Gator defense will have its hands full with Henry; Florida allowed 180 yards and two touchdowns to LSU's Leonard Fournette earlier in 2015.
- Clemson is the favorite in the ACC. Clemson has wins over Notre Dame and Florida State, and is currently ranked as the No. 1 squad in the College Football Playoff. After exercising their demons and defeating Florida State, the Tigers also have an easy path to the ACC Championship game, where they could be facing the upstart North Carolina Tar Heels. Isn't North Carolina supposed to be a basketball school? The Heels have won nine games in a row since a season-opening loss to South Carolina, though they still have two road games at Virginia Tech and at NC State to end the year.
- If Notre Dame wins out, with their only loss coming in close fashion to Clemson, they will have an extremely strong case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff. The Irish may have been hurt a bit by Stanford's second loss of the season, but beating the Cardinal in Palo Alto will still be no small feat. The Irish have been racked by injuries and still have not wavered, which gives them a huge bump according to the CFP Committee.
What We Don't Know
- Who will win the Big 12, and will the winner have enough juice to earn a place in the College Football Playoff? The big story from the inaugural season was the omission of TCU and Baylor, both one-loss squads from the Big 12. The last two weeks of the Big 12 schedule are a proverbial round-robin of scintillating games. Undefeated Oklahoma State ends the season with one-loss Baylor and one-loss Oklahoma. TCU's only loss is to Oklahoma State, and the Horned Frogs have the reverse schedule of OSU. So that means three teams with one loss and one team with no losses play each other over the last two weeks of the season to determine the Big 12 Champion. Will the schools knock themselves out of the race? Or will one champion emerge from the mayhem? My gut feeling here is the former, and that the Big 12 will be sorely disappointed heading into bowl season yet again.
- Will Ohio State be able to run the table against one-loss Michigan State, bitter rival Michigan and likely undefeated Iowa? The Hawkeyes are really throwing a wrench into the proceedings, as they are 10-0 with their only signature win being a defeat of Northwestern. But before Ohio State can play Iowa in the Big Ten Championship, the Buckeyes must get through an extremely daunting final stretch of the regular season. The Spartans should likely still be undefeated (see last week's article on bonehead officiating), but instead head to the Horseshoe licking their wounds from a last-second loss to Nebraska. Should Ohio State coach Urban Meyer get his troops past the Spartans, coach Jim Harbaugh at Michigan stands in his way. This matchup, in Ann Arbor, should be physical, nasty and filled with hyperbole. A win by Michigan could seriously dampen OSU's College Football Playoff hopes.
The tiebreaker system hinges upon head-to-head matchups. For example, if Michigan State and Michigan ended up tied for first with one conference loss apiece, then Michigan State would win the division based upon the head-to-head matchup. The three-way tie is no longer possible, thanks to MSU's aforementioned defeat. Needless to say, these final two head-to-head matchups with the finest that the state of Michigan has to offer will be vital for Ohio State.
What Will Happen
I have no idea. But the most likely scenario is that Clemson, Alabama and Notre Dame run the table and get in. That leaves the Big 12 Champion and the Big Ten Champion likely vying for one spot. If you recall, this is exactly what happened last season. Ohio State was somewhat of a surprise inclusion as the fourth team in the field, leaving TCU and Baylor out in the cold. If Oklahoma State wins out, and doesn't get in as an undefeated champion, there will have to be some serious soul searching done by the NCAA. That would be denying an undefeated Power-5 Conference Champion a spot in the Final Four. However, if all the Big 12 schools have one loss or more, then it is highly likely that the Big 12 gets the cold shoulder from the committee.
The rankings right now don't matter. Or maybe they do? Perhaps we just need the illusion that they matter. But when the final rankings come out, and that illusion becomes reality, you can be sure there will be plenty of complaints and debate. And that's just how we like it.
