This is tough to write about. I love college football and I’m a big fan of big games on Saturday. My girlfriend says I preach about this too much (she’s probably right, but I think she agrees with me). Fix The Rankings. Its not the BCS that is the problem with CFB, its the early rankings. The BCS can say they are doing it right since they are creating their system from a WIDE array of rankings - NYT, ESPN, USA Today, Harris, etc… you get the idea. But the problem here is that all these rankings are predicated on what the teams are supposed to do - everything starts in the preseason, and you have to be perfect throughout. Teams that don’t start the season in the top-25 have a huge mountain to climb just to get noticed (ex: Boise St in 2006). This preseason “ranking” is based on what, the teams upcoming schedule and the players they have coming back (Let’s hear it for Michigan at #5). All we really get is the sportswriters that sit back and very Nostradamus-like prophecize how the season will play out.
Well sportswriters and experts, lets take a look at how you are doing so far, 5 weeks into the season (and remember, most of the big school pad their early schedule with cupcakes and girl scouts and the serious games come in the second half). In comparing to the preseason polls, you’ve got 5 teams (USC, LSU, FLA, Wisc, OK) still in the top-10 but only USC, LSU, Wisc are still undefeated. Three additional of the teams in the top-8 (KY, USF & BC) weren’t even in the preseason top-25 and are currently undefeated. On top of that, you have 5 more teams not previously ranked and now in the top-25 who are undefeated (Hawaii, Purdue, ASU, Cinn, & Mizz), for a total of 13 undefeateds. There is the serious potential for more than a couple undefeated teams in CFB this year, but anything can happen. Couple of the current undefeated teams will probably cancel each other out (USC, ASU & Cal and USF & Cinn all still have to play each other).
So, my small suggestion to the CFB gods. Since you don’t want an 8-team winner-take-all tourney - don’t start ranking until week 5. This will give you a small chance to separate the pretenders from the contenders. It would give a team like Cincinnati (brutal remaining sched, but if they happen to run the table, who knows, doubt it, I think I have more of a chance being president in ‘08), KY, or USF a legitimate shot at a national title. Punishing teams because you don’t get a chance to see them play, research them enough, or rank them high enough in the preseason is not fair. I know the BCS is supposed to take the subjectiveness out of the system (ha - the LSU/USC flip flop this week), but take a step back and start fresh in week 5 or 6. I can dream, right?
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