Man vs. Machine - A Ken Massey Computer Ranking 24-Team Playoff

Here are the Ken Massey rankings updated through Saturday's games.

https://masseyratings.com/cf/fbs/ratings

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel began his review of this weekend's games with the following: 'There is going to be a record amount of outrage in college football come Tuesday night.'

My response: DUH!

With mega-conference disparity in conference game Strength-of-Schedules, there were going to be more two-loss and fewer-loss teams that would fit in a 12-team playoff.

Perhaps, Stewart, you, and other CFB experts should not have been so quick to accuse Tony Petitti of coming up with a playoff format that would eviscerate college football.

Besides a bigger paycheck than you thought you'd ever see, record coaches' salaries, players making millions of dollars over the table, and more eyes on CFB than ever before, by all means, let us keep our PO unsullied; all teams must earn their way into the field.

The SEC's Greg Sankey revoked his (faux) approval of Tony's PO plan and decided to move to a nine game conference schedule, because the PO committee's use of new metrics would not leave a worthy 3-loss SEC team out of the field.

Greg, you may want to ask Sark how the 3-loss thing is working out?

I think Tony Petitti may soon be acclaimed as the smartest guy in the room, although I expect Greg will take credit for his help in crafting Tony's plan.

Using Massey's rankings, this is what a 24-team PO field would be.

ACC - 14 Miami, 29 Louisville, 30 SMU, 33 Georgia Tech

Big Ten - 1 Ohio State, 2 Indiana, 3 Oregon, 16 USC

B12 - 9 Texas Tech, 11 BYU, 13 Utah, 24 Arizona

SEC - 4 Georgia, 6 Alabama, 7 Ole Miss, 8 Texas A&M

G6 - 32 JMU, 36 North Texas

At Large - 5 Notre Dame, 10 Oklahoma, 12 Texas, 15 Vanderbilt, 17 Michigan, 18 Iowa

7 SEC/ 6 Big Ten/ 4 ACC/ 4 B12/ 2 G6/ 1 Notre Dame

The top 8-seeded teams have a 1st round bye. The first three rounds of the PO would be played on campus.

1 Ohio State vs. 17 Michigan at 16 USC

2 Indiana vs. 18 Iowa at 15 Vanderbilt

3 Oregon vs. 19 Arizona at 14 Miami

4 Georgia vs. 20 Louisville at 13 Utah

5 Notre Dame vs. 21 SMU at 12 Texas

6 Alabama vs. 22 JMU at 11 BYU

7 Ole Miss vs. 23 Georgia Tech at 10 Oklahoma

8 TX A&M vs. 24 North Texas at 9 Texas Tech

The only first-round repeat game would see Michigan at USC.

Will this happen? Possibly, but not before 2027 at the earliest. Or, we could see Tony Petitti's 16-team 4-4-2-2-1-3 format come to fruition.

OBD is off until playing a 1st-round PO home game on December 19th or 20th, which is nice. 😁