RSSWeek 2: What SM Thinks the College Football Playoff Rankings Should Be (Update: AP Has New #1, Clemson Tigers)
WEEK 2 – College Football Playoff Rankings … My predictions:
With all due respect the the AP and Coaches poll, they mean pretty much nothing as we saw by the first week’s College Football Playoff Rankings by the committee. Thankfully, the committee actually did their job for the most part and based the rankings off of what has happened on the field this year, not a bias representation of a preseason poll of last year. Also, let me just say this to every NCAA team, strength of schedule matters. Just being undefeated and running up against the score against cream-puffs means nothing. That being said, ahead of the week 2 rankings, this is what I think they will and should look like this week.
A note to the Big 12 and MSU, time to put a sock in it and play the game. Thursday and Saturday’s results show the committee was 100% correct. After this weeks games it is time to say goodbye to Michigan State, who should have already been eliminated from contention but for a BS punt play against the Wolverines. Carma has a way of evening itself out, doesn’t it? Also say goodbye to TCU and their whining after they claimed they were robbed by the committee. TCU’s 49-29 loss, which seemed even more one sided than that effectively ends their run for the playoffs. And add LSU to off the contention list. LSU was manhandled and their Heisman trophy candidate was shut down completely.
- Clemson Tigers (9-0) [They have finally slayed their FSU demons, the Tigers are the real deal. It is more impressive to defeat a rival like FSU because to be the man, you need to beat the man. With wins over ND and FSU, who else can claim that in college football?
- Alabama Crimson Tide (8-1) [Last night against the LSU Tigers, BAMA proved to all the haters why they are in the top 4 in the College Football Playoff Rankings. Its time for the haters to put a sock in it, especially the Big 12 schools, as you could never have held what was the Heisman front-runner, until last night, Leonard Fournette to 31 yards on 19 carries. Oh, BTW, 18 yards came on one carry, you do the math. LSU had 54 yards rushing for the game, time to give praise where the praise is do.
- Notre Dame (8-1) [For anyone who actually watched ND beat Pitt yesterday, which the committee does, unlike the AP and Coaches pollsters who look at final scores, you will know that it was a one sided affair and a late garbage TD with a second string QB in made it look closer than it was. The Fighting Irish also have a top 12 SOW. If ND runs the table and defeats Stanford in the final week of the season, they are in the Final 4]
- Ohio St. (9-0) [sorry, you don't get to be top 3 with a SOS in the 70's and only beating Minnesota by 14 at home, scoring a TD with less than 2 minutes in game. Another lack-luster performance by Ohio St as their starting QB was benched because of a DUI. The Buckeyes finish the season with MSU and Michigan. A loss to either one of those two and they are out. Call me crazy, but I think the Wolverines are pulling the upset in The Big House".]
- Stanford (8-1) [The Cardinal rolled the Buffaloes on Saturday and proved once again they are the top PAC 12. If they run the table and beat ND, they are in the Final 4.]
- Florida (8-1) [The Gators had the most ugliest win of the day against Vanderbilt, but it was a win and with their SOS in the 20's and winning the SEC East, they are a top 10 team]
- Oklahoma St. (9-0) [OK State becomes the Big 12 team de jour. First it was Baylor, then TCU and now ... its the Cowboys, only because they beat TCU at home. The so-called pundits claim that if OK St or Baylor run the table, they are in. I don't buy it. You can't just be undefeated in your conference where they play no defense and have out of conference games scheduled against Central Michigan, Central Arkansas and UTSA and be considered a top 4, even if you are undefeated.
- Baylor (8-0) [Baylor is the most over-rated team in the NCAA. With a 94 SOW and coming off a 31-24 win against a K State team (3-5) with no conference wins, the Bears don't get to move and its only because some other teams lost why they are even in the top 10. The schedule they have played looks more like a big joke, that the Big 12.]
- LSU (7-1) [I could only drop them so far, even though I think LSU could beat many of the teams ranked above them, especially in Baton Rouge.]
- Iowa (9-0) [The Hawkeyes may be undefeated, but they have played no one and a SOS in the 60's. Yet another team who has played no one and no out of conference games against anyone.]
I will say it one final time, until some of these teams start playing out of conference games against Power 5 conferences, and not the cellar dwellers of those conferences, they have no reason to complain. One can’t play in a weak Power 5 and then also play no one … if you do that is the equivalent of playing in a non-Power 5.
UPDATE I: AP poll shamed into putting Clemson at #1 over Ohio State.
Who honestly thinks the AP poll would have put Clemson at #1 over Ohio State had the College Football Playoff rankings not put them at #1? Sorry, but the Buckeyes have not been the best team in the country all year. Suddenly, the AP has a change of heart and puts a team at #1 who has actually beat good teams. But the AP loses points with their knee jerk reaction to bump OK State, the latest darling of the Big 12, up 9 places to #5. Give me a break folks, Baylor, OK State, TCU and OK are not that good. But for some reason the AP feels the need to always have two teams in the Top 10 even though they have done nothing to deserve it. OK St finally wins a game against some one, even though it was an over-rated TCU team and they are world beaters. Meanwhile, Baylor has played a schedule less than teams in the American Conference, and they are in the top 4. BS!!!
The Clemson Tigers are the new No. 1 team in The Associated Press college football poll, knocking the Ohio State Buckeyes from the top spot for the first time this season.
The Tigers are top-ranked in the AP media poll for the first time since the final poll of the 1981 season, when Clemson won its only AP national title.
Clemson was No. 1 when the initial College Football Playoff rankings of the season were unveiled Tuesday.
The Tigers (9-0) received 31 first-place votes and 1,489 points after beating Florida State 23-13 on Saturday. Ohio State (9-0) had 26 first-place votes and 1,460 points. The defending national champions have been first since the preseason, when they became the first team to be a unanimous preseason No. 1 in the 79-year history of the AP rankings.
UPDATE II: The actual College Football Playoff ranking polls have it as follows: Clemson, Alabama, Ohio St and Notre Dame. I can’t complain with the top 4, I basically have the same with OSU being #4. However, I do have a couple of issues that the committee might have to explain. IOWA at #5, REALLY? How does that happen? Both Baylor and Iowa won games unimpressive against non-ranked opponents by 7 to 8 points and some how Iowa leapfrogs everyone? Hell, why didn’t you just put them in the top 4 while you were at it. At this point I am also not buying Utah in top 10 over Florida.
Deadspin Releases Pics of Why NFL Star Greg Hardy Was Arrested For Assaulting His Ex-Girlfriend … Dallas Cowboy Owner Jerry Jones Should Be Ashamed of Himself
OWNER OF THE NFL DALLAS COWBOY’S JERRY JONES SAID THAT GREG HARDY WAS A “REAL LEADER” OF HIS TEAM … LEADING WHAT, HOW TO BEAT UP A GIRL?
For those who couldn’t figure out, former NFL Carolina Panther and now Dallas Cowboy DE Greg Hardy is a rotten, pathetic excuse of a human being and who should be in prison, not on a football field. Deadspin has posted pics of Nicole Holder, the then girlfriend of Greg Hardy who was beaten by Hardy in a terrible domestic violence incident. Unlike the much publicized case of Ray Rice, who knocked out his then fiance, now wife, in an elevator, Hardy skated on his punishment as a cash settlement was made and the victim no longer cooperated with the DA. Take a good look at the pics of what this animal did to this woman and completely got away with it because he is a good edge pass rusher. Worse than that, the assbite owner of the Dallas Cowboys says Greg Hardy is a “real leader” of the team.
The NFL was worried about a deflated football, but this POS is allowed to play?
Barefoot and frightened, Nicole Holder walked as fast as she could through the darkness, and the moment she saw the cops she ran. She headed west on Fifth Street toward North Church, away from the Charlotte., N.C., apartment of Greg Hardy, a star defensive end then with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Minutes earlier he had, she said, thrown her against a tile bathtub wall, tossed her on a futon covered in assault rifles, and choked her until she told him to “kill me so I don’t have to.”
Officer Jeffrey Kendrick ran after her, ordering her to stop. Holder turned and walked toward him, and Kendrick asked her why she was crying.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told him. “Nothing is going to happen to him anyways.”
A year and a half after Hardy was arrested and charged with attacking Holder, it’s clear that she was mostly right. Last year, Hardy was convicted of assault in a bench trial, but the charges were dismissed on appeal and, it was reported yesterday, expunged. He missed more than a season of football, but went on to sign with the Dallas Cowboys, for whom he’s become a bigger star than ever despite (or perhaps because of) a series of incidents ranging from making sexist comments in a press conference to going after a coach on the sidelines. Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ billionaire owner, calls him a “real leader” who has the respect of all his teammates and inspires America’s Team.
If this is how Hardy acts with another NFL player, imagine how he would treat someone smaller like a woman.
Until either Jerry Jones rids this team of this cancer or sells the team, I am no longer a fan. I have been a Dallas Cowboy fan since the early to mid 70′s when Walt Garrison, a real cowboy, was still playing. I remember like it was yesterday, the famed Thanksgiving Day game in 1974 when backup QB Clint Longley came in after Roger Staubach suffered a concussion and he threw two touchdown passes to lead the team to a 24–23 victory over the Redskins at Texas Stadium. Who thinks that if Tom Landry was the head coach of the Cowboys, this scumbag would be wearing the Star? YOU ARE A DISGRACE JERRY JONES, MAYBE JUST AS BIG A ONE AS GREG HARDY!
Former NBA & Khloe Kardashian Spouse Lamar Odom Found Unconscious at Nevada Brothel … Reported Fighting for His Life
Lamar Odom Found Unconscious at Love Ranch Nevada Brothel …
TMZ Sports is reporting that former NBA player and former husband of Khloe Kardashian was found unconscious and unresponsive at the Nevada brothel Love Ranch South. According to the Nye County Sheriff’s department, a call came in at 3:15 PM for an unresponsive male at the Love Ranch. It turned out to be 35-year-old Lamar Odom, who divorced Kim Kardashian in 2013 after four years of marriage. Paramedics treated Odom and he was taken to a nearby hospital. TMZ is updating that Odom is still in a coma and his heart is failing and their source says he is having serious problems with his kidneys and lungs as well.
Lamar Odom is fighting for his life after falling into unconsciousness at Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch South in Pahrump, Nevada … TMZ Sports has learned.
Sources at the Love Ranch tell us … 35-year-old Odom arrived at the Ranch Saturday and was partying with the girls for days. A source at the Ranch said Lamar was taking an herbal substitute for Viagra.
We spoke with Hof … who tells us Tuesday afternoon, a woman went into Odom’s room in the VIP suites and found him unconscious.
We’re told the woman began screaming for the manager — who called 911.
This terrible situation should probably not come as a surprise as Lamar Odom has been on a downward spiral for years. Odom has been dealing with a drug problem for years and it looks like it may have finally consumed him.
NFL Officials Blow Call in MNF Game Between Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions … Illegal Bat Penalty Should Have Given Lions the Ball on the 1 Yard Line
TERRIBLE CALL: JUST CURIOUS … WHY DO WE STILL HAVE NFL REFEREE’S?
Well, the NFL officials have managed to screw up another call and this time it looks like they cost a NFL team a football game. The Detroit Lions were going into score to win the game against the Seattle Seahawks with seconds left in the game. All-world WR Calvin Johnson caught the pass and was heading into the end zone when the Seahawks Cam Chancellor punched the ball from the receivers hands and the ball went into the end zone and then the football was knocked out of bounds by K.J. Wright. Game over and touch-back to Seattle, right? As Lee Corso would say … Not so fast my friend.
“I have spoken to the referee (Tony Corrente). He did not see that part of the play because that is not his area. The back judge (Greg Wilson) felt it was not an intentional act, that it was inadvertent,” he added.
Wright, however, admitted that it was an intentional act.
“I wanted to just knock it out of bounds and not try to catch it and fumble it,” he said. ” I was just trying to make a good play for my team.
Once again the NFL has 10,000 rules and yet some how they still can’t get the obvious correct. If all turnovers are reviewable, how in the hell isn’t the entirety of the play reviewable? Don’t give me this crap of intent. The facts are the fact of a play and it is obvious that the player, K.J. Wright intentionally batted the ball out of bounds. If you asked him at the time of the play he would have admitted it. But a gutless and clueless NFL back judge refused to make the call. What’s the matter coward, you afraid the 12th Man would have attacked you? Or is it that the NFL and Roger Goodell needs to protect the Seahawks from going 1-3?
This is not the first time that Seattle has been given a gift by NFL referees as we all remember the infamous “Fail Mary”. However, at least those were replacement refs. What was your excuse last night? With so many plays now reviewed, one has to wonder what the purpose is anymore of a referee during a game. There was no guarantee that the Lions would have scored from the one yard line, after all it is the Lions. However, wouldn’t it have been ironic that the Seattle D was on the field with a chance to win the game, something their offense could not do in last year’s Super Bowl against the New England patriots.
Click HERE to watch the VIDEO of the illegal bat that was never called
USA TODAY: NFL Blows it Again.
Another Monday night in Seattle, another controversial ending.
The NFL’s officiating crew botched the ruling on what appeared to be a remarkable game-clinching play in the Seattle Seahawks’ 13-10 escape from the Detroit Lions.
Seahawks Pro Bowl safety Kam Chancellor punched the ball from the hands of Lions wideout Calvin Johnson as he was about to cross the goal line for the go-ahead score. The ball rolled through the end zone, and Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright intentionally tapped the ball over the back line, thinking the Seahawks would take possession on a touchback, which they did with 1:45 to go.
But should they have?
“You can’t bat the ball in any direction in the end zone. K.J. Wright batted the football, that is a foul for an illegal bat,” NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said on NFL Network following the game.
The BS of the AP & Coaches Polls … Ohio St #1 After Playing No One and Winning by Close Scores
SORRY FOLKS THESE POLS ARE TOTAL BS … THERE SHOULD NEVER BE A PRE-SEASON POLL BASED UPON LAST YEAR.
Has anyone been paying attention to what the Utah Utes have been doing this year? It would appear that the AP and Coaches poll voters are doing their best Fred Gwyn impersonations, “What’s a Ute”? So 6 weeks into the NCAA season and we have a #1 team that has played nothing but nobodies, and played them close. How does Ohio St. hold on to the #1 spot when they have not earned it. If you don’t have the resume and you don’t pass the eyes test, why are you #1? And that goes for you too Michigan State. Oh, it’s because they have brand recognition, really? So 1 of the 4 teams to determine the National Championship is going to be picked based upon two undeserving teams in OSU and MSU when they play on 11/21? It must be nice to play in a conference where you have one difficult game to determine if you make it to the final 4.
The AP and Coaches poll voters should be ashamed of themselves. Have you watched any of the Ohio St Buckeyes games, any of them, Nunan? How does anyone give a team 38 AP 1st place votes and an even worse 50 first place coaches poll votes for a team who has played Va Tech (2-3), Hawaii (2-3), NIU (2-3), Western Michigan (1-3), and Indiana (3-1)? Making matters even more of a joke is the fact that OSU struggled to beat Va Tech, who lost their starting QB during the same. Did we mention that Va Tech has also lost to East Carolina and Pitt and only have wins against Furman and another joke in the Big Ten, Purdue. Making Ohio St and even bigger joke of being ranked #1 is their victories against NIU (20-13), Western Michigan (38-12) and an Indiana (34-27) team who has also played no one. Ohio St was a 21 point favorite over the Hoosiers, and hung on to win with the Indiana QB nearly pulling off the upset. The Buckeyes were 34.5 point favorites against NIU and 31 point favorites against Western Michigan. Needless to say they didn’t even come close to covering.
So I ask the question, why do other teams get knocked down in the rankings when they fail to provide style points and run up the score against teams they have no business playing, but those rules don’t apply to Ohio St? Just curious. Another note to the ignorant and would would seem to be bias voters, losing on the road to a ranked team would hardly seem to be a reason to lower some one in the polls 7, 8 or 9 spots. So the purpose of these polls is to only play cupcakes? Honestly, who the hell in their right mind drops a team 9 spots in the polls who goes into Death Valley in Clemson, SC and barely loses a game by 2 when they had outplayed the home team in an absolute down pour?
In any event, Ohio St is not the #1 team and to even fathom the thought that two Big Ten teams are #1 and #2 in this day and age of just how bad that conference has become, need their head’s examined and their voting privileges taken away.
The AP Ranking are as follows:
RK Team Rec
1 Ohio State (38) 5-0
2 TCU (5) 5-0
3 Baylor (10) 4-0
4 Michigan State 5-0
5 Utah (7) 4-0
6 Clemson 4-0
7 LSU 4-0
8 Alabama 4-1
9 Texas A&M (1) 5-0
10 Oklahoma 4-0
11 Florida 5-0
12 Florida State 4-0
13 Northwestern 5-0
14 Ole Miss 4-1
15 Notre Dame 4-1
16 Stanford 4-1
17 USC 3-1
18 Michigan 4-1
19 Georgia 4-1
20 UCLA 4-1
21 Oklahoma State 5-0
22 Iowa 5-0
23 California 5-0
24 Toledo 4-0
25 Boise State 4-1
For anyone who is fair minded and is only taking into account what has gone on the field this year, not based upon last year or some preconceived notion that they are better than they really are would have their top 10 teams as follows. Of course these polls can change depending on wins and loses from week to week and how one wins.
1. Utah
2. TCU
3. Baylor
4.Texas A&M
5. Ohio St.
6. LSU
7. Alabama
8.Clemson
9. Oklahoma
10. Michigan St.
