Just when you thought there wouldn’t be polls to argue about authencity and accuracy about for a while along came the one dropped on Election Night that provided the first actual lens into what appears will be the last 12-team College Football Playoff ever. Suffice to say the entire DALLAS MORNING NEWS’ SportsDay staff (at least that what it appears to be) was anything but pleased:
College Football Playoff madness is upon us. The committee’s first edition of its weekly CFP rankings were released Tuesday evening and the college football public had quite a bit to say. Two Texas teams cracked the top 15, with Texas at No. 7 and Texas Tech all the way down at No. 15. A couple other surprises included Alabama being all the way up at No. 5 and Notre Dame being down at No. 11.
And even an unabashed ‘Bama booster, ESPN’s fortunately non-candidate for elected office Paul Finebaum, was anything but complimentary, as THE SPORTING NEWS’ Rodney Knuppel shared pre-dawn this morning:
Finebaum described the rankings as unusually difficult to understand and questioned the reasoning behind Alabama’s placement…”I don’t really know if I can make much sense out of it because it is about as discombobulated a ranking as I’ve ever seen. I would use words like the committee was drunk, but that would be inappropriate for such an august group of people, but it really doesn’t make any sense,” Finebaum said.
His comments reflected a larger debate about the committee’s willingness to prioritize overall résumé strength over head-to-head results. Alabama’s schedule includes several challenging opponents, which may help explain why the committee views the Crimson Tide favorably.
If anyone should know the likely reason, it would be an ESPN employee. Take a look at how the projected CFP field looks with this current arrangement. Alabama would get a home playoff game against far and away the weakest team in the field (for shiggles, that’s currently Boise State) before advancing to a road game against the defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers–themselves seen as riding a crest of hangover support from their historic 2025 season that has them handily ahead of an actually unbeaten (for now) Big 10 conference rival. You can already see the strategists salivating as to what possibilities the AI-powered promo department could do with all that.
More immediately, it reinforces the importance and true relevance of this weekend’s signature matchup between the Crimson Tide and Lane Kiffin’s soap opera of an LSU squad in Death Valley on Saturday. It’s being wisely kept out of prime time–the all-of-a-sudden vulnerable Miami Hurricanes, now without top receiver Malachi Toney–will be reviving the “Convicts vs. Catholics” showdown at Notre Dame under those lights–but hey, in markets like Birmingham-Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge sweeps still matter, and for their ABC affiliates it’s a doozy.
And as the Texans reminded, it’s one of many reasons that will drawing eyeballs to screens this Saturday:
The CFP rankings also set the table for an incredible Week 10 slate. No. 7 Texas visits No. 18 Missouri, No. 9 BYU visits No. 3 Utah, No. 23 Oregon visits No. 12 Ohio State, No. 14 LSU hosts No. 5 Alabama, No. 13 Tennessee hosts No. 6 Kentucky, No. 1 Miami visits No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 10 Ole Miss hosts No. 2 Georgia.
Which will most likely mean the griping from the Finebaums et al will be moot and an entirely new cycle of second-guessing and finger-pointing will commence. Lather, rinse and repeat for the next month. And next year when the joockeying for post-season position doubles? So too will the banter and second-guessing.
Let the games, rather than the gamesmanship, proceed as soon as possible.
Courage…