A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE TOP 25 - PLAY 8, NOT 9

[Jon Joseph]

The week 4 PO Committee rankings bring up a number of questions and issues; especially, for the Pac-12 conference.

 

The Ducks took one of the deepest dives in the history of the rankings falling 8 spots from 3 to 11. But it's hard for an Oregon fan to be too angry about this when the team lost its lunch on The Farm versus a terrible Cardinal squad and played close games at home versus opponents the Ducks should blow out.

 

Yet, the Ducks still have the best non-conference win of the season at 2 Ohio State but the loss and Stanford and the complete beat down at 19 Utah have reduced the Ducks post-season hopes to the Rose Bowl with an outside, long shot chance at the Fiesta Bowl.

 

But it's not like the top rated teams have faced a huge gauntlet in 2021. 

 

1. Georgia - 1-0 vs the top 25 with an opening game win versus 23 Clemson. The SEC E while looking strong in the first half of the season has face planted. The cross over win against Auburn is not that big of a deal.

 

2. Ohio State is 1-1 versus the top 25 with a home loss to 11 Oregon and a home beat down of 12 Michigan State.

 

3. Alabama - 2-1 vs the top 25 with a loss at 11 A+M and home wins over 9 Ole Miss and 25 Arkansas. Arkansas has 4Ls in 2021. I'm not saying The Hogs are unworthy of being ranked at 25 but there are a number of 4L teams the Committee could have put in this spot. Is Arkansas 25 to help justify ranking Bama at 2?

 

4. Cincinnati - 1-0 versus the top 25 with the win coming in South Bend against #6 Notre Dame.

 

5. Michigan - 1-1 versus the top 25 with a loss at 12 Michigan State and a win at 14 Wisconsin.

 

6. Notre Dame - 1-1 versus the top 25 with a home loss against 4 Cincinnati and a neutral site win against #14 Wisconsin.

 

7. Oklahoma State - 1-0 versus the top 25 with a win versus 8 Baylor and a loss at NR Iowa State. OK ST plays 10 Oklahoma at home Saturday and if it wins the Cowboys will play 10-2 Baylor in the B12 champ game.  That would be 2 top 25 wins in its last 2 games for a B12 champ OK ST. Assuming Notre Dame finishes 11-1 with a win at Stanford, I see no reason why conference champion 11-1 OK ST would not finish higher than Notre Dame.

 

The point of this review, the top teams rarely play one another in CFB. Georgia has looked awesome but Georgia's schedule has not been all that.

 

Alabama? Won a close game at Florida and close games versus Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas. Should Bama be 2 spots higher than Michigan?  Alabama was a 2 TD favorite at an A+M team playing its back up QB, and lost.

 

5 B1G schools and 5 SEC schools are in the top 25. Follow the money. Across the board the B1G and the SEC have the biggest football budgets. The B1G has a daily program on the B1G Network devoted to football. The SEC Network has Paul Finebaum covering SEC football 3 hours daily plus a daily 'SEC Now' program devoted to SEC football during the football season. Both the B1G Network and SEC Network have a huge number of subscribers.

 

The Pac-Network has few subscribers and not even a weekly show devoted to football except for the 'Pac-12 After Dark' weekly wrap up show.

 

The conference that has the next most teams in the top 25? The ACC with 4! 17 Pitt, 18 Wake Forest, 20 NC State and 23 Clemson. The Pac-12 that is just as good (or bad) as the ACC this season has 2 teams ranked with Oregon at 11 and Utah at 19. The same number of teams ranked as the AAC conference.

 

Why 4 for the ACC and 2 for the Pac-12? because the ACC is savvy enough to schedule only 8 conference games. With 9 regularly scheduled conference games half of the Pac-12 will play 5 conference road games every season. New Mexico State played at Alabama two weeks ago and at another SEC team last Saturday.

 

If Oregon had played New Mexico State in Autzen last Saturday where would the Ducks be ranked? No lower than 4.

 

If the Pac-12 wants to be a serious PO contender it should drop divisions, drop the California scheduling agreement and play 8 not 9, regularly scheduled conference games. For some reason the Pac-12 powers-that-be cannot figure this out?

 

No team that played 9 regularly scheduled games has won a Playoff title. 

 

 

[30Duck]

On 11/25/2021 at 6:59 AM, Jon Joseph said:

If Oregon had played New Mexico State in Autzen last Saturday where would the Ducks be ranked? No lower than 4.

 

Based on what the other teams have done, with the W @ Oh. ST. and the L to Stanford, probably 3, and maybe 2, if the Committee kept the Ducks above OH. ST.