I love his admission about Alabama getting the benefit of the doubt “because they’re Alabama.” Ironically, he’s right that Utah doesn’t control its own destiny, but doesn’t say anything about that kind of bias as a key reason why.
This is why I think we should play at least one high quality non-conference opponent … and YBU isn’t an “A” game. While I’d love to see the Utes make the playoffs I’d be off to the moon with conference title and Rose Bowl victory. 
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Interesting with all the SOS comments Utah’s is in line with most of the contenders.
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Yes, but Alabama.
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It’s a gamble either way. Oregon would control its playoff destiny right now if they had played an easier OOC schedule. Also, the way we played against BYU and NIU, I’m not sure we’d have won an early season game against a very good opponent.
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Lol. Weird how LA brings up Bama’s SOS but not Clemson
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As we learned when Utah faced SC in LA. That loss, a loss where Utah was in the RZ I believe seven times, built a fire under the Utes. They needed that benchmark to become the dominant team we now see. Enjoy the rest of the season, if Utah continues to win, good things will happen. Still a bunch of football left for everyone. The die is not cast.
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We’d definitely be talking about Clemson’s SOS if Clemson had a loss. There’s no real case right now for leaving Clemson out of the playoff. There is a very real, multi-dimensional case for leaving Alabama out. In other words, Bama is perceived as a threat to Utah’s chances, and Clemson is not.
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^^This^^ It is a system designed to prevent outsiders from interfering. Alabama, Clemson, etc. don’t have to risk adding tough games because we supposed to just accept that they are always top 4. They act like for everybody else, you better have a difficult schedule to prove your worth. Got a loss? Sorry we just know Alabama/Georgia/Oklahoma is(are) always better, regardless of your schedule.
The reality is I think Clemson and Alabama show the model for P5 schools. Setup a weak OOC schedule and dare them to leave out an undefeated P5 champ. With 4 teams, there is always going to be a log jam of 1-loss teams, and the committee has shown a preference for the blue bloods. If you get a loss along the way you aren’t making it in either way, regardless of your strength of schedule. Only those predesignated good teams get in with a loss.
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I don’t recall saying anything about Alabama‘s SOS. I mentioned them only because the SI writer brought up Alabama and said they had an enhanced chance of getting in “because they’re Alabama.“ LOL back atcha!
It’s too bad we don’t have a lonely Clemson fan here who can be your counterpart and respond to you.
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I don’t think that’s entirely fair. The computers are not biased (unless the bias is in the design), and they rate Clemson and Alabama very highly. My eye test also rates Clemson and Bama very highly. Recruiting rankings, which have repeatedly been shown to correlate with on field results, also rate Clemson and Bama highly. I think it’s clear that both teams are very good, and I would be nervous to play either.
Where I agree with you 100% is in the fact that we have a subjective system run by a committee of idiots. Why in the world should we trust this decision to a group of 80-year-old former ADs, coaches, and players from blue blood programs? That makes no sense at all. It’s like we took a small sample of the morons who run the polls and gave them all the power.
The CFP desperately needs to be run on objective measures like conference championships. You have to take the human element - with all its bias - out of the equation as much as possible.
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The only team that truly scares me is OSU. The only games we have to rate SEC teams against “quality” opponents outside their conference are:
LSU 45 @ Texas 38 (9)
Georgia 23 vs Notre Dame 17 (7)
Auburn 27 vs Oregon 23 (11)
None of these games were blowouts.
Texas was ranked #9 at the time, but is now 6-4 with losses to OU, TCU, and ISU. The win against Texas was used as justification to move LSU from #6 to #4, jumping over OSU and OU in the process, and creating a ranking with 3 of the top 4 teams from the SEC (CLEM, ALA, UGA, & LSU).
Notre Dame was ranked 7th at the time, and is now 8-2 with a huge 45-14 loss to Michigan. The UGA win looked good at the time and still is. However, they dropped a game to a now 4-7 South Carolina team that has losses to: UNC, MIZ, Tenn, and App St.
The Auburn victory over Oregon looms large. It is really the only game the SEC has to justify ranking their teams over other conferences with similar records. And while a win is a win, it is important to remember the game occurred on a “neutral field” (driving distance from AUB), Auburn needed a crazy comeback to win, and it was the first game of the year before teams hit their stride.
The most egregious of these was the LSU win against Texas used as justification to jump OSU and OU, and thus create a system where all the top SEC contenders would inevitably lose to only another top-4 team (UGA didn’t get the memo).
The point being, based on out-of-conference competition comparisons, there is nothing about any SEC team that scares me. OSU on the other hand has so completely dominated every opponent that it adds a scare factor, although their schedule to-date hasn’t featured any top-tier teams. We will find out more about them these next two weeks.
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Maybe I’m just depressed.
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I’m sorry he got hurt, and so badly. The game has become more violent and dangerous than ever. Not sure what should be done about that.[
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OSU is clearly the scariest team. I wouldn’t let early season results impact your opinion of a team too much. Auburn beat Oregon, but Oregon is clearly the better team. LSU narrowly beat Texas, but I think LSU is much better than Texas. All of these teams have changed since early September, and so has Utah…
My tier ranking of the top 10 teams in terms of how nervous I would be to play them:
Very nervous: OSU, Clemson
Somewhat nervous, but hopeful: LSU, Bama, Oklahoma, Oregon
Quite confident: Georgia
Betting the farm: Penn State, Minnesota
We hate Bama more.
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Wasn’t it Urban that said if Oregon played E. Washington instead of Auburn they’d be in the playoffs?
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How is Oregon “clearly” better than Auburn? I ask this because I think Utah is clearly the #4 right now but Oregon is maybe #8. I would rank it:
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Clemson
- Utah
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Florida (about 4 teams could be here)
I don’t understand how the NY6 selection works.
The Cotton Bowl doesn’t have a conference bowl tie it, It appears to have an open selection of the highest rated G5 team, do they get to pick which P5 team plays that G5 team or are they forced to take the highest rated CFP team that isn’t already slotted into another NY6 bowl. For example, if Oregon finishes 5th in the CFP and wins the conference they’ll automatically go to the Rose Bowl. If Utah finishes 8th in the CFP and Florida finishes 9th, does the Cotton Bowl get the choice to take Florida over Utah?
Well, every poll and every computer ranking has Oregon ahead of Auburn. And the eye test definitely puts Oregon ahead. Auburn looks awful every time I see them (4-5 times so far this season). Bo Nix may turn out to be a good QB, but he has really struggled this season. I fully expect Alabama to truck Auburn in the Iron Bowl, even if Tua’s back up gets hurt in practice.
I also think Georgia is interesting. They have 3 top 25 wins and a good/great defense, but they haven’t played a good offense yet. It’s weird to say it in a season with games against ND, Florida, and Auburn, but Georgia hasn’t really been tested.