Latest college football rankings again place two SEC squads in the top 4

November 26, 2014

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee announced Tuesday the fifth installment of its top 25 rankings, and once again the committee has insisted on putting two SEC schools in the top 4 spots with Alabama ranked first and Mississippi State ranked fourth.  Oregon is ranked second, and Florida State, the only undefeated school in the Top 10, is ranked third.

One of the fears of the new playoff system was that it might give the SEC too much credibility based on its perceived "strength," despite the fact that the Conference generally schedules weak non-conference opponents and plays only eight conference games.

It's very convenient circular reasoning on the SEC's part.  In other words, by claiming that their conference games are so difficult, they can then assert that they should not have to schedule tough non-conference foes or add a ninth conference game because it would be an undue burden for the SEC schools to manage such a schedule.

What hogwash.

What if the SEC is not as good as it claims to be? Or what if the conference is indeed good, but not any more so than some of the other upper-echelon leagues such as the Pac-12, which currently insists on a nine-game conference schedule?

This season the SEC East division is a flat-out joke, with Missouri (a former Big 12 school only 3 years removed from that league) and Georgia being the only ranked teams.  Moreover, even those two schools have their own share of blemishes, with the Tigers dropping a game to Indiana and Georgia losing badly to Florida.

The SEC West division is good (but not great), as it certainly has more talent than much of the Big 10 and ACC, but is not overtly better than either the Big 12, or especially the Pac-12.

Nevertheless, the SEC West's Mississippi State, with it's deplorable non-conference schedule (Southern Miss, UAB, South Alabama, UT Martin), and early season conference victories over perceived "tough" teams (LSU, Texas A & M, Auburn), has been artificially elevated into the national championship picture with only one win over a ranked team (#15 Auburn).

The committee did reward the Pac-12 somewhat by correctly making #8 UCLA the highest-ranked two-loss team in the nation after the Bruins blowout victory over USC on Saturday.

The selection committee will prepare two more rankings this season, including the final set on Selection Day, Sunday, December 7.

“This has been a week of stability in the rankings, especially at the top.  Given the way the games were played over the past week, there was very little change,” said selection chairman Jeff Long.  “As important as the rankings are at the top, I want to continue to emphasize we focus on all 25.  Our job is to rank 1-25 and we take that very seriously.  We spend a great deal of time talking about each team that we rank.”

The selection committee will continue to evaluate teams and will meet in person again December 1-2 to issue its new rankings before the final meeting December 5-7.  The playoff pairings, New Year’s bowl pairings and final top 25 rankings will be announced Sunday, December 7.

1 Alabama 10-1
2 Oregon 10-1
3 Florida State 11-0
4 Mississippi State 10-1
5 TCU 9-1
6 Ohio State 10-1
7 Baylor 9-1
8 UCLA 9-2
9 Georgia 9-2
10 Michigan State 9-2
11 Arizona 9-2
12 Kansas State 8-2
13 Arizona State 9-2
14 Wisconsin 9-2
15 Auburn 8-3
16 Georgia Tech 9-2
17 Missouri 9-2
18 Minnesota 8-3
19 Mississippi 8-3
20 Oklahoma 8-3
21 Clemson 8-3
22 Louisville 8-3
23 Boise State 9-2
24 Marshall 11-0
25 Utah 7-4

By Mike Elliott
Editor of TheDailySportsHerald.com

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