Finally, a poll that matters, just at the wrong time.
The College Football Playoff committee emerged from its conclave Tuesday to reveal the first College Football Playoff College Football Poll. They name everything so literally.
In the highly anticipated moment, the top four have been set, along with the remaining 21 teams who will play in the regular, old, boring bowl games. The 12 members of the committee met in Grapevine, Texas, in the Gaylord Texan hotel – which they will do every Monday and Tuesday for the remainder of the season – and picked a top 25.
Here it is:
1. Mississippi State
2. Florida State
3. Auburn
4. Ole Miss
5. Oregon
6. Alabama
7. TCU
8. Michigan State
9. Kansas State
10. Notre Dame
11. Georgia
12. Arizona
13. Baylor
14. Arizona State
15. Nebraska
16. Ohio State
17. Utah
18. Oklahoma
19. LSU
20. West Virginia
21. Clemson
22. UCLA
23. East Carolina
24. Duke
25. Louisville
After reading through the teams and weighing the decisions made, a question presents itself. Why does the committee even need to release a poll this early in the season and why does it need to pick a top 25? The only item on the agenda for this group is to select and seed the top four, as well as select the teams for the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach Bowls when they are not being used as championship semifinal locations.
There are plenty of meaningless polls around – AP, Coaches, whatever – that simply serve as water-cooler argument starters. Auburn is ranked over Alabama, Notre Dame is in the top 10, Florida State was jumped by Miss. State for No. 1 while remaining undefeated. The poll is to appease fans, make news (See: I’m writing about it), and fill airtime on ESPN. The unveiling started on 6:30 p.m. Central and the network filled 30 minutes of airtime stretching out the results and discussing it. The show that could be accomplished in two minutes serves as counter-programming to the World Series pregame and the start of the NBA season over on different networks.
Having the committee meet for the remaining six weeks of the season is also unnecessary. Does the college basketball committee release a poll every week? No. It waits until every game has been played, and all of the season’s evidence has been revealed so it can make a marginally informed decision with each team’s full body of work.
This poll also puts a human face onto the decisions. Human faces that can be directly blamed. A college football analyst like Danny Kanell can have his opinion and selectively remove certain teams from contention due to that opinion, but it has no impact on the real world. It’s fodder for television; discussion for sports radio. But if a team is left out by Pat Haden or Condoleezza Rice, it’s their fault.
As controversial as the old BCS computer algorithm was, if 2004 is removed, it correctly selected the best two participants for the national championship game. Why could that not have been expanded to selecting four teams? Why bring in human error and human biases? The Massey Rating collects 104 polls, mostly comprising of computers, and it has four SEC teams as its top four. If the CFB Playoff committee did that, #FSUTwitter would burn the Gaylord Texan hotel to the ground. Three in the top four might be bad enough.
I’ve always been in favor of the playoff, but I’m still concerned about the criteria the committee uses, as well as the effectiveness of their selections. The Playoff’s website lists its principles of selection as “conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory), and, other relevant factors such as key injuries that may have affected a team’s performance during the season or likely will affect its postseason performance.” This first poll seems to heavily favor strength of schedule and head-to-head wins with Ole Miss ranking above Alabama.
But that last piece of criteria may be a problem. With the computers of the BCS, there were few discrepancies. If Jameis Winston is injured in the ACC title game, Florida State ends up winning and remains undefeated, but he isn’t available in the Playoff game(s), should the Seminoles be in the top four? That’s something the committee may have to decide; something that would invoke ridiculous opinions from both sides.
Hopefully the committee members won’t be influenced by the fire and brimstone of college football fans and maybe they will stay objective throughout this process. But the issue of controversy – which is intended – could be diminished to the one day when the committee makes its final selections, not every Tuesday night on ESPN. Publishing a weekly top 25 when only the top four matter is pointless and feeds the flames that already burn around these polls.
Alabama is No. 6 and Miss. State is first, Auburn is third and Georgia is 11. But before fans get angry, it’s October and those teams still have to play each other. A myriad of teams have one loss and many have decent arguments to participate in the playoff. The chaotic scene of competing teams will calm as the season rolls along and these teams play all of their games.
For those who are currently infuriated, there are weeks of football left to be played. If a team is on the outside looking in this week or if a team made the cut, after the final week of the season all of this will have changed. By Dec. 7, when the committee releases its final poll, final seeding and bowl match-ups, you have my permission to get angry.
