2021 Couch Power 10, Week 9
For the first time in this entire, wacky college football season, the chatter about and focus of the sport is not about what is going on the field, but what is happening off of it.
That's not because the craziness came to a halt last weekend, mind you! Far from it. In the only matchup between highly-ranked teams, Michigan and Michigan State played an epic rivalry game that lived up to every ounce of the hype, Notre Dame and North Carolina capped off the day with a thrilling back-and-forth shootout, and eight more ranked teams lost a game, all but two of them coming at the hands of, you guessed it, unranked teams!
But no, the chatter is centered instead around the first release of the College Football Playoff rankings. Sadly, and predictably, it's a ranking that is WAY too high on the Big Ten and SEC, and WAY too low on any non-Power 5 teams, other than those playing in the Mountain West for some reason, which seems random until you remember the Mountain West commissioner was one of the co-architects of the playoff committee setup. This postseason system and the people that decide it is inherently biased, self-interested and corrupt. We know this by now, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating. So I'm going to use this piece to tell them how I could do a better job than them.
Just a refresher: our ranking is not a definitive ranking on how good the teams are, or on who I think will be/deserves to be in the playoff at the end of the year. Rather, it's more of a "What if preseason rankings and bigwig bias didn't predetermine the top teams" kind of thing, an ideal ranking of the country's teams based on what they've actually proved on the field to date. You know, the kind of thing you'd expect the playoff committee to consider:
1. Georgia
Georgia spent a little over a quarter stuck in first gear (is that the right term? I don't know cars) against rivals Florida, before ratcheting up in the second quarter and ultimately running away with a 34-7 win. I don't know what's more wild, that we have a third consecutive season of an SEC team that has a unit that is the best in all of college football, or that in this day and age, said unit is actually a team's defense.
2. Michigan State
Michigan State certainly had their skeptics, entering Saturday's contest as the lower-ranked team and the underdog, despite a. actually having a tougher strength of schedule than Michigan, and b. being the home team. There were multiple times in the game where it seemed the skeptics might be proven right, not the least of them at the very start, when Michigan took one of the first plays from scrimmage 93 yards to the house. But the Spartans dug deep, as they seem to always do in this matchup, and behind a Heisman-worthy performance from Kenneth Walker, staked a real claim for being the 'best of the non-Georgia.'
3. Cincinnati
There were uproars abound with Cincinnati's 6th-placed ranking by the playoff committee, and let's acknowledge two things: one, it's absolutely absurd. Cincy has one of the most impressive wins of anyone in the country on their resumé-- a double-digit road win at Top 10 Notre Dame --and beat another Power 5 team, Indiana (who was ranked in the Top 15 to start the season) on the road as well. They've struggled against some inferior teams of late, sure, but you know who else has done that this season? Literally every team not named Georgia. That said, the second thing to acknowledge is that for the second week running, the Bearcats looked somewhat unimpressive against a team they really should be obliterating. That's why I've dropped them a spot in this week's rankings. I will be curious to see if the committee snub lights a fire under them for next week.
4. Alabama
Alabama got the week off and got to watch the playoff committee rank them second in the country despite having a loss and seeing Georgia absolutely wax the same Florida team that took them down to the wire. Must be nice to be king.
5. Michigan
I can't imagine how painful it must be to be a Michigan football fan of late. Actually, I can, I have multiple friends from Michigan who remind me every year how painful it must be. But seriously, the fact that the Wolverines (especially under Jim Harbaugh) can't seem to ever win the big rivalry games but also seem to lose so many of them in heartbreaking fashion... I don't know how to explain that. Fortunately for their Couch power ranking prospects, these rankings don't take into account how likely or not a team is to win a big game, only how they've looked so far this season. And for at least 3 quarters on Saturday, Michigan looked like the better team, and a team that deserved their undefeated, Top 5 status. All is not lost for them, even if they couldn't pull out what would have been a program-defining win.
6. Oregon
One of the only things I will give the playoff committee credit for is being high on Oregon. Let me be clear: I don't think the Ducks have any right to be ranked ahead of Cincinnati. But I DO like seeing them ahead of Ohio State and Oklahoma, particularly the Buckeyes, who they beat in Columbus. People who have (perhaps understandably) tuned out the Pac-12 are forgetting that not only does Oregon own that massive win and one over Fresno State that is appreciating in value after the Bulldogs ended San Diego State's perfect season Saturday; they also are a couple seconds of regulation away from being undefeated right now, and considering those final minutes against Stanford included some objectively atrocious officiating... let's just say it's nice to see they're not out of it yet.
7. Oklahoma
Another thing I'll give the committee credit for-- see? I'm fair!! --is having Oklahoma as low as they did. The Sooners are unbeaten, and if they end the year unbeaten, there's no way they miss out on the playoff. But this ranking is sending a message: strong-willed as you have to be to gut out multiple close games, you also can't afford to, more often than not, look like crap against inferior teams. To date, Oklahoma has played a schedule against zero ranked teams, and the majority of those games have been far too close for comfort.
8. Wake Forest
Wake Forest, cognitive dissonance though it may be, looks the part of a playoff contender more so than fellow unbeaten Oklahoma. They're reminding me of the 2015 North Carolina team, who capitalized on an elite offense and an abnormally weak year for the division to run the table in the ACC Coastal; like that UNC team, the quality of opponents is holding the Demon Deacons back in the polls, but it doesn't make their stylistic victories any less impressive. Interestingly enough, their next game? At North Carolina, the preseason darlings in the ACC whose season has gone vastly differently than expected.
9. UTSA
I get that the Cincinnati/Alabama/Ohio State rankings are taking up most of the post-CFP ire, but don't let it slip by you that 8-0 UTSA is LITERALLY NOT EVEN IN THEIR TOP 25. An undefeated team that features in the 15 in the AP Poll wasn't deemed to be among the best 25 by the committee bigwigs. Look, they've played an easy schedule, sure. But I don't care if every game on their schedule was Bishop Sycamore, an 8-0 team has more of a right to be ranked than three different 5-3 teams do.
10. Ohio State
The more I think about it, the more I actually think Ohio State at #5 was the most egregious ranking by the committee. Did they get a solid tough win against Penn State last weekend? They did. Had they looked immensely better in the weeks since their loss to Oregon? They had. Did we at The Couch recently rank them as high as #6? We did. But here are the facts: as good as they may have looked against cupcakes, they have played exactly one (1) good team, and two (2) decent teams. They played all at home. They lost to Oregon, and needed big plays late to beat both Minnesota and Penn State. You can't tell me that that's a playoff resumé. It doesn't mean they won't get there, they almost surely will. But they're not there yet.
Just missed: Close behind: Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Baylor, Auburn, Ole Miss, runnin' Sam "Lamar Jackson 2.0" Howell
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