Playoff Rankings Reaction: The SEC Feedback Loop & Indiana Gets Punished On Their Off Week

This is an SEC committee that has a feedback loop for that conference. If I was Greg Sanky, I would be like, "Yes, this is amazing. This committee is just drinking all the Kool-Aid. Indiana got drilled by the committee." Hey, welcome to the program. It is the Joel Clayton, Joel Clay. This show is brought to you by Hilton. Hilton for the stay and we thank them for their support. We've got more rankings here. Let's go. Let's get reaction. What does your boy think about the new college football playoff rankings? I've got a lot of thoughts. Let's get to it right away. Shall we? This is what the committee gave us. Oklahoma State jumped in there at 25. All right. So there are 25. Then you go Boise. Boise. Highest group of 16 ranked in there. So Boise looks good right now for a potential playoff push. Arizona. They're at 23. I'll be in Tucson, by the way, this week. Utah at Arizona. Gus Geni and I will be on the call. We are not going to call that Ohio State Northwestern game. So we'll be on a little bit later this week. Missouri after the loss to Texas. They dropped down to 22. LSU after the loss to Alabama. They're at 21. Then there's the Buckeyes. Who knows what the Buckeyes are going to be this week against Northwestern? More on that in the picks and previews episode. That's coming up tomorrow. You're going to be going to want to be there. Picks not going great for your boy this year, by the way. It's been a wild year. 19 is Ole Miss. SC is in there at 18. Remember they had an off week. And they'll be traveling to Indiana this week. South Carolina jumping up to 17. I mean, they did not look good early in the year. But here they are. A three-loss team. They're 17. Oregon's at 16 after that win over Ohio State. Dominating for really the middle portion of that game. After the 14, nothing deficits. So Oregon jumps up sneaky right there at 16. Iowa's at 15. Houston quietly sitting there at 14. Wake Forest with only the one loss. Outside of the top 12 at 13. Texas at 12. Kentucky off that loss at 11. BYU. They lost Utah there at 10. Indiana at nine. More on that in a little bit. Tennessee at eight. Miami off the loss. Seven. Texas beat Missouri. They're six. Noter Dame beats Miami. Only goes up to five. Interesting. I thought they would get up inside of the top five. But they didn't because we've got to make sure Alabama's there. Obviously. UCLA is at four. Then there's Bama. It's basically the Alabama invitationals. So here we are. They're at number three. Utah at two. Big holy war win. And then I think everybody. I think that's a pretty unanimous thing. They were number one. In my poll, Georgia, the number one team in the country. Okay, so let's get to it here. What do we think of these rankings? Well, like I said, last week. These all matter because last week was a starting grid. And then we started to see that starting grid play out because you saw the games have value last week. And you also saw an off week have value or lack there of for one team. So we'll get into that as well. Here's what I want you to kind of just sit back and realize we are in something right now. And what we are in right now is a feedback loop. Okay. The committee is giving us an SEC feedback loop. That's what we're getting. And it's derived that way based on essentially two criteria. This is not about wins and losses. This is about big wins and strength of schedule. That's how you get a ranking like what we have. Right now we're seeing every single week that feedback loop perpetuate itself because these teams are ranked higher in this poll than the other polls. Then they play each other. One wins and they get more of a bump. So then everything is a feedback loop. And they all play each other. And then they just continue to perpetuate themselves up the poll. And what the committee is telling us right now. And they're telling all of college football this right now. They're telling us that one conference place quality football this year. That's what they're telling. Now you may agree with that. You may disagree with that. But that's clearly what the committee thinks right now. Is that one conference is playing good football. And then there's some teams that they kind of have to throw in there because their record is really good. And then that's how you get this ranking. But it's really about who you beat and then your strength of schedule as a tiebreaker. There's no other real reason why you would get the teams in this particular order. The reason I know we're in a feedback loop and an SEC feedback loop. More particular is that for the second straight week, this committee is overvaluing that conference versus the other poll, the AP poll. Every single team in this poll from the SEC is either even or ranked higher by the committee than they are in the AP. The only two that are ranked even are Georgia and Ole Miss. Ole Miss was 19 in both polls. Georgia can't go anywhere higher. So they're number one. They kind of throw them out. Every other SEC team ranked higher by the committee than they are by the AP. So this committee is telling all of college football. They're telling every coach in the country. They're telling every single fan in the country that one conference is playing quality football right now. And yeah, we know there's some undefeated and one loss. And we'll throw them a bone here. They're okay, Utah. Here you go, okay, UCLA. There's your bone right there. All right, Notre Dame, Miami. But rest assured, we're going to get our crown jewels in there. This is becoming an SEC invitational this year. There's going to be five, maybe even six SEC teams make this college football playoff, depending on how this thing all plays out and who beats who going down the stretch. Because again, it's a feedback loop. They all are going to play each other. They're all going to get massive valuation from those games based on the committee's rankings that they give us. And this is not me being mad at that. This is just me looking at it and telling you what reality is right now in college football. That's reality. That's reality. The other reason I know that is that you can go down the poll. In every single instance in this poll from the committee. I don't even know what it's called or ranking, whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it. Every single instance, the SEC team from Georgia to Ole Miss at 19. The SEC team is ranked one spot higher than a team that has less losses than they do. Fewer losses than they do. Oh, you grammar police. You're all going to be out in the comments. Anyways, trust me. I see you every single day. You guys are all hammering me on the grammar police. All right, fewer. I think it's fewer. They have fewer losses and yet are ranked behind the SEC team. Okay, so Georgia won loss. Utah undefeated. Alabama two losses. UCLA undefeated. Texas two losses. Miami one loss. Tennessee two losses. Indiana one loss. You go down the list. Kentucky. Same thing with Texas tech. You go all the way. South Carolina three losses. USC two losses. Until you get to Ole Miss and then they're even with Ohio State from 19 to 20. So like there's no other way. Again, I'm not even mad about it. This is just reality. And if you're a fan of that conference, you've got to be thrilled right now. If I was the commissioner, if I was Greg Sankey, I would be like, yes. This is amazing. You know, all the Kool-Aid that we could possibly give them from narrative, from every possible direction. They're just drinking it up, man. Like it's a hot summer day. You betcha. You betcha. Now, do I disagree that Georgia should be number one? No, I don't disagree with that at all. Alabama is overranked. Period. Now, I was very careful with that language because I don't think they're overrated. I think that they're a very good football team. There's no doubt. I think Alabama could go and win the national championship. So I'm not mad that they're ranked number three, because I can certainly see someone arguing that they're the third best team in the country or the third best resume in the country or they've got all these quality wins. And so they needed, I totally understand that. But you see where we're going here, right? Like this is headed in a direction where one conference is valued and nobody else is valued. How else do you get a ranking where a team has an off-week and gets slid down five spots? I mean, Indiana got drilled by the committee. You had a thought they lost. Heck, Missouri did lose. They only dropped four spots. Indiana dropped five spots from the couch. I mean, wow, I guess, I guess here's the problem with Indiana. You look in that top 10. They're the only team in the top 10 that you can say like, "Yeah, they don't really have a great win." You know, I don't, apparently, at Michigan, not very good. Okay, but I can get on board with that. You know, @Nebraska is the other good one. They lost to Ohio State. Now, you can't tell me that they're being penalized for the loss against Ohio State because when they played Ohio State, Ohio State was a different version of Ohio State. And you're still telling us, Hunter, your chick, which I can't believe you said it again. I think you said it just to troll me. I'm almost certain. He brought up the Mississippi State game again for Alabama. Could you believe it? I couldn't believe it. You got to leave a comment down below. Like, were you thinking? Thinking of last week's show, when he said that about Alabama, I mean, I obviously was. I was like, no, he didn't. He didn't say it again, did he? I mean, my goodness. So Alabama gets a bump because they beat Mississippi State when Mississippi State was good, but the loss for Indiana to Ohio State, even when Ohio State was good and Julian San was the quarterback clearly far too much. But again, it doesn't matter who you lost to, it matters who you beat. And Indiana is the only team in the top 10 that doesn't really have the marquee win. You can go down the list. Everybody else has great wins. Georgia obviously has great wins. They won at Alabama, at Ole Miss. Utah beat BYU, they've got the Houston win up there. Bama at Kentucky, at LSU, they've got a South Carolina win now that is a 17th ranked. And yours is still telling me the Mississippi State's a good win. So through that in there, I sweared, he trolled me. I swear, UCLA at Oregon now, that looks like a good win. Why is UCLA for with their strength of the schedule? Because they've got a big win, Oregon's ranked 16. I think Minnesota would be a valuable win as well. Notre Dame's now got the Miami win. Texas has a ton of wins. I was actually surprised. I'm still surprised that Texas is ranked behind Alabama because their wins are better. Ohio State, at Tennessee, Ole Miss, Missouri, like they've got a laundry list of quality wins. I think the inconsistency from their team is what's hurting them. And Bama just gets a free pass because they're Alabama, I guess. I don't know. I mean, I don't know what's going on. Indiana doesn't really have the marquee win BYU's got Notre Dame. Kentucky, even you go to 11, they've got LSU, South Carolina. So you can see how it's made. You're like, okay, now I get it. It's all about big wins. And then you start to separate them out and you're like, well, how do they piece together than its strength of schedule? Right? That's what the committee is doing. Its big wins and its strength of schedule losses don't matter. Losses do not matter. And I'm just going to take a moment here because we did get news this week that the 24 team expansion into the playoff era, I guess you would call it, is official and it is happening and it will happen next year. And the big outcry that I hear from fans most of the time, and listen, truth be told, I'm in favor of the expansion. And I know that you disagree with me and I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. But I will say part of the, what you call, like argument or angst about the 2014 playoff is about the devaluing of the regular season. Right? That's what most people will talk about when they talk about their animus towards an expansion to 24 teams. I would just say, and this is not this is not an argument or a disagreement, but isn't the committee devaluing the regular season in front of our face because it doesn't matter that Alabama lost two games, UCLA is still behind them and UCLA is undefeated. So obviously the regular season is already devalued. We're already going down a trajectory where everybody that has influence in particular around the SEC pounded the table for strength of schedule, quality wins, the feedback loop, here we go. And that's what we're getting. But other conferences don't get the benefit of the doubt at all, speaking of lack of benefit of the doubt. Indiana is 24 and one in their last 25 games and they are the defending national champions. And they just got bumped five spots, five spots in an off week from their couch. That is wild guys like wild. I totally understand that they have not played, um, they have not played a schedule like Texas has played or Ohio State has played or even Alabama has played. I, I'm fully aware of that. I understand that they don't have the marquee win. They didn't beat Ohio State, even though Julian saying was there. But can you imagine a world where even in the old days when the SEC was playing their eight conference games and in their four non-conference games and the cupcake week in November, can you imagine an SEC defending national champion being 24 and one in their last 25 games and being knocked down five spots in an off week by the college football playoff committee? No, you can't, you can't imagine that because you would never happen and yet it just happened to Indiana. Just happened to Indiana. I'm interested to see what Indiana looks like this week against USC and in particular, what happens at quarterback. More on that in tomorrow's show picks and previews. Some takeaways, obviously Indiana tech, Wake Forest, they're the ones being hurt by this feedback loop. The most all three of those teams only have one loss and yet they're kind of like up against it. I think they have to get to the big 10 championship game. If they don't get to the big 10 championship game and were to loot, like let's say they lose to USC this weekend. There's a good chance that they're going to be out of the playoff unless they can somehow get to Indianapolis and then they'll be, I would think from the committee some acknowledgement that if you get to the big 10 championship game, you should be in the college football playoff. It is the conference that has won the last three national championships, including Indiana. So it's pretty wild that the defending champ is sitting here and they're up against it a little bit. Meanwhile, tech, Wake Forest, tech, they've got a path to the big 12 championship game, but I think they might have to, they might have to win that game based on what's going to happen because even if Alabama loses and I don't expect them to, by the way, they're about to play like Chattanooga and Vanderbilt speaking of schedule strength. It's all right. It's all right. Everyone's fine. Everyone's fine. 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Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later when you go into purchase. Just a huge shout out to SeatGeek. And then Wake's got a big game this weekend against SMU. So that one, that one should be a massive game. That one's at SMU. But those three teams, I'm looking at it and I'm like, nah, man, those are the ones getting hurt the most by the SEC feedback loop. I do think that the big 12 is fascinating though because BYU is holding strong. Remember, big wins, strength of schedule. So big wins first, they beat Notre Dame, Notre Dame's in the top five. So now BYU is still sitting there and even if they don't get to the big 12 championship game, which, you know, if Texas Tech were to beat Oklahoma State this weekend and get themselves to Dallas and play Utah, like, there's a good chance that those two teams will be playing in the championship game and BYU would be sitting at home and I think BYU would be in at that point, which then leads you to a scenario where like, let's say Tech wins that game, Utah would still stay in because they're all the way up there at number two. They would only have one loss at that point, potentially, even though they've got to play Arizona this weekend. And I think that's going to be a tough game and Tucson. But you're looking at a scenario where maybe the big 12 could sneak three teams into the college football playoff. I think that would be pretty cool. I think that would be pretty cool and don't tell any of, but don't tell the committee that though, because they'll look at that and be like, hold on, hold on, engage, feedback loop. Here we go. We got to get South Carolina and I'll miss back in this thing. And the last thing that I would, I would say is Oregon's kind of working out there. They still have a path to the big 10 championship game. Now they're sitting there as the highest ranked three loss team. You know, it's not out of the question that they could be sitting there on the bubble. I don't know if they can get into the top 11. You would have to be with Boise State out there. I don't know if they can get all the way up there and get into the playoff without going to the big 10 championship game, but it's, you know, being the top ranked three loss team. But you're likely going to get another three loss team out of a like a Tennessee, maybe even a Texas. Both of those teams have to play LSU down the stretch. Maybe LSU bumps themselves all the way up there with that ammunition. So that's what we're looking at right there. So there we go. We got the feedback loop engaged. The committee is telling us one conference is playing quality football. There's some other teams sprinkled in there. And what you need to know from this is that we are in a world where the regular season is already being devalued by the committee actively in this poll. There's no other way around it. They're in an SEC feedback loop. And we're likely headed to five SEC teams in the playoff. Maybe even six. Listen, I think it's still going to be a great playoff. I'm not suggesting that they don't have great teams and they're not playing great football. But that's what's going to happen. that the committee is giving us right now. And we'll see how it plays out. We'll see how it plays out when we actually get to these games in the playoff. Pick some previews coming up tomorrow. Some big games in college football, no doubt. And again, I think it's gonna present some separation. And we're gonna start to see some of that separation after Saturday. Remember to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't. Subscribe on YouTube, rate and review us wherever you're listening, follow us on social media, agile, clash show. That would be awesome. and enjoy your day until tomorrow when we got picks and previews.