CFP Anger Index: Bama beats Mercer and gets to jump
- David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterNov 19, 2024, 07:57 PM ET Close College football
- reporter.Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of the University of Delaware.The committee
has actually exposed its third set of rankings this season, and aside from BYU tumbling after a loss and Tennessee falling simply outside the existing playoff field, not much has changed.But that does
n’t mean there’s not a factor to be annoyed. Undoubtedly, it indicates the committee had a whole week to repair the mistakes it had currently made, and it selected not to!So, who should be most angry today? Grab a pillow to shout into and a tension ball to clutch. We’ve got a lot to get off our chests.
A fact the committee explained today: Beating Mercer by 45 points is much better than sitting at home on
the couch.So it is that Alabama, which was ranked behind Miami recently, beat up on an unlucky FCS challenger and jumped Miami throughout the Canes’ open date.Was there
a message in this?Surely, the message could be that taking the week off isn’t something to be rewarded, but we’re betting that’s not a message the committee wishes to send out while coaches are arguing about the value of playing in a conference title game.Is the message that burning out a group from the Southern Conference is actually excellent? All due regard to UMass-Lowell, however we question it.No, the message seems to be that the ACC requires to understand its
location in the chain of command, and the line begins behind Alabama. Funny, due to the fact that we thought the ACC already got that message last year, when Florida State was neglected. Abundant von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire Unfortunately, Miami went from No. 4 in the first rankings all the method to No. 8 now, thanks to a one-possession loss to a solid (and underrated)Georgia Tech group. But is that fair?Miami has four wins over SP+top-40 teams this season– the same number as Alabama and two times as lots of as Notre Dame.Miami has a much better loss than either of the two groups directly in front of it: Georgia Tech is No. 55 by SP+. Vanderbilt(one of two losses for Alabama, remember) is No. 61. Northern Illinois, which beat Notre Dame in South Bend, is No. 84. Miami’s issue, obviously, is it lacks a signature win. Notre Dame has Texas A&M. Alabama has Georgia. Miami has … Florida? So maybe the Canes should not be rather as mad at the committee here as they need to rage with Louisville. The Cardinals were the lynchpin victory for both Miami
and SMU(and assisted Notre Dame, too ), but they mishandled their way to a loss to Stanford that will be studied by future generations as a model of ineptitude.That the committee has actually woefully underestimated SMU all season, has pushed Miami behind the two-loss Tide, and believes Clemson is worse than Colorado is the genuine message here though. The ACC is a one-bid league. The committee is spelling it out loud and clear. 2. Everybody not called Texas in the SEC Let’s state something at the top: Texas is probably quite great. It is, of course, not the Longhorns’fault they signed up with the SEC and still drew a Huge 12-caliber schedule. But truths are facts, and in a conference
with six eight-win teams and four more currently bowl eligible, Texas has actually played exactly two Power 4 challengers with a winning record this season. Those games led to a three-point win over Vanderbilt and a shellacking by Georgia.But Texas has one loss, and the rest of the SEC competitors has two or 3. Is that all that must matter?Will be fascinating to see the SEC chain of command, and it’s hard to fault Texas for the schedule it was handed … however 1 team is not like the others here. pic.twitter.com/K6yISrTFN5!.?.!—(@ADavidHaleJoint)November 19, 2024 Eventually, winning games is the most essential thing, and the committee seems to recognize that with Indiana at No. 5, despite a schedule that might well have consisted of a home game versus Bishop Sycamore.But is all of it that matters? If Texas played Georgia’s schedule, would it still have a much better record? Their head-to-head meeting would suggest otherwise.Again, it’s hardly Texas ‘fault the SEC rolled out the red carpet in Year 1. However it is up to Texas to impress when the spotlight is on, and given that the blowout win versus Michigan– a team greatly overvalued at the time– the marquee moments have actually been primarily meh, right as much as recently’s mediocrity against Arkansas.Ultimately, an exceptionally good SEC team– Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, South Carolina or Alabama– is going to end up having actually played a significantly harder schedule, showed they can hang with the very best of the very best, and either go on the roadway for a strenuous opening-round matchup or be excluded altogether. (Seriously, how is Georgia the 10th-best group in the nation? There’s no rational argument.)However Texas? Even with a loss to A&M, it’s hard to see the Horns falling from No. 3 to a location outside the leading 11. How bad was the Kansas loss?Editor’s Picks 2 Related There’s an excellent case to be made that the Jayhawks are an incredibly underestimated challenger right now. They opened the season ranked in the top 25, they’re just rounding into shape now, and they have actually been extremely unlucky, going 1-5 in one-possession games. SP+ ranks Kansas as a better loss than Vandy or Georgia Tech. And BYU was still probably the better group in that game, but an unique groups miscue cost the Cougars a win.So what? BYU most likely ought to’ve lost to SMU or Oklahoma State or Utah, and karma is a real jerk.Still, let’s compare some résumés here.Team A: 9-1, No. 13 strength of record, finest win vs. SP+No. 12, loss to SP+ No. 84
, 3 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams Team B: 9-1, No. 15 strength of record, best win vs. SP+No. 46, loss to SP+No. 5, 0 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 groups Team C: 9-1, No. 9 strength of record, best win vs. SP +No. 22, loss to SP +No. 55, 2 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams Team D: 9-1, No. 8 strength of record, best win vs. SP +No. 13, loss to SP+ No. 42, 3 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 groups They’re all in roughly the exact same demographic, sure, but if you’re splitting hairs
, it’s tough not to split them in Group D’s instructions, right?Well, naturally, Group D is BYU.
And, obviously, Team A(Notre Dame), B (Boise State)and C (Miami )are all ranked higher.< img height="320"width ="570"src=" https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42490559/
“/ > AP Photo/Rick Egan Way back when the playoff began and the committee was released, the idea was not to change the rankings entirely off the previous week– sending out teams that lose tumbling and groups that win inching up as attrition occurs above them– but to see each team’s résumé anew each week. However this committee is acting every bit like the AP citizens of old– dropping Miami and Georgia and Tennessee and, especially,
BYU, due to the fact that of recency predisposition instead of the sum total of the outcomes. Heck, BYU is now behind SMU– a team with the exact same record the Cougars beat head to head!And the genuine concern here? With BYU, Colorado and Arizona State all now ranked behind Boise State, the odds
of the Big 12 missing
an opening-round bye are looking quite strong.Maybe Coach Prime needs to utilize some of his substantial broadcast to discuss that. Mentioning Coach Prime, here we are again with the clearly remarkable two-loss Big 12 team ranked five areas behind Colorado.Same record. Arizona State’s worst loss was by 10 without its starting quarterback. Colorado was blown out by Nebraska. ASU’s best win protests SP +No. 18; Colorado’s is No. 49. And, if we’re being truthful, Kenny Dillingham’s postgame rants this season have actually been more entertaining than Deion’s, too.
play 1:07 ASU coach labels kicking game ‘godawful,’validates tryouts for Monday ASU coach Kenny Dillingham identifies his team’s kicking game” godawful” and states it will be hosting open tryouts on Monday.This is a mistake by the committee, plain and basic.5. The Power 4 We will not get to say this very often, but the power players are getting screwed.OK, not actually. The SEC and Big Ten will be great, and even if they’re not, they can weep themselves to sleep on huge piles of money.But the truth remains that Boise State is primed for a first-round bye, and this week’s top 25 includes 4 teams from outside the standard power conferences: Boise State, Army, Tulane and UNLV.That’s the most during any one week because the final survey of the 2021 season that included five, however amongst those were Houston, Cincinnati and BYU– all power conference groups now. Just twice before have 4 teams not currently in a power conference league(or the Pac-12)been ranked simultaneously– in the wild COVID year of 2020, and for a single week in 2019 with Boise State, App State,
Memphis and Navy.Somewhere, Greg Sankey is diabolically petting a cat in an extra-large chair and plotting vengeance.
Week 13 12-Team CFP Bracket Forecast Week 13 12-Team CFP Bracket Forecast Likewise Angry: Duke, Pitt, Kansas State, Syracuse, James Madison and Washington State (all 7-3 or better, unranked and with more wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 groups than Illinois), SMU(9-1, No. 13 ), Georgia (8-2, No. 10. Seriously, who thinks there are 9 better groups?)