College football playoffs ranking

people keep saying "just keep winning and the ranking will take care of themselves."

but the rest of the teams can also keep winning.

i just don't see a point in which the gophers jump a pac 10 champion, a sec champion, clemson and a one loss alabama/ohio state. i just don't see it happening.

If we beat a previously unbeaten Ohio State in Indy, that’s automatic top four. If we lose that game, it will obviously drop us in the last ranking. If Penn St beats Ohio St, will be more interesting. Don’t think they will, nor Michigan.
 

Putting us at #8 gives the committee breathing room to keep moving us up if we keep winning but toss us out out if we don't go undefeated. Iowa is #20 and Wisconsin is #14 and will likely be either #11 or #10 by the time we play them. IF we win out and don't pull a Wisconsin in the conference championship game; which teams have a better resume than us for the #4? We would have two top 10 wins with our only loss coming against #2. In that scenario it should be Ohio St, LSU, Clemson, Minnesota.

Putting us at #8 allows the committee to keep inching us up but giving them an out. If we are any P5 team with a respectable history we are in the top 5 right now. Unless they start going by who you have played and what you have actually done THIS year, the CFP is always going to be heavily slanted toward the SEC.
 


Yes but we only beat Penn St by less than a TD, at home. That’s pretty close to a coin flip. The committee may have used reasoning like that to discount the impact of our win over them.
 

Putting us at #8 gives the committee breathing room to keep moving us up if we keep winning but toss us out out if we don't go undefeated. Iowa is #20 and Wisconsin is #14 and will likely be either #11 or #10 by the time we play them. IF we win out and don't pull a Wisconsin in the conference championship game; which teams have a better resume than us for the #4? We would have two top 10 wins with our only loss coming against #2. In that scenario it should be Ohio St, LSU, Clemson, Minnesota.

Putting us at #8 allows the committee to keep inching us up but giving them an out. If we are any P5 team with a respectable history we are in the top 5 right now. Unless they start going by who you have played and what you have actually done THIS year, the CFP is always going to be heavily slanted toward the SEC.

Teams either get the benefit of the doubt, or they don't. Minnesota is in the latter group right now. The thought probably is: "what if we overrated Penn State?" Win consistently and you get the brand clout that would normally vault you into the top 4 this week.
 


People are ranking based on whatever they want to rank on. Rankings mean nothing until the last one.

Gophers go undefeated - Playoffs
Gophers lose a game - No playoffs

No reason to get caught up over rankings on Nov 12

How Minnesotan of you.
 


Yes but we only beat Penn St by less than a TD, at home. That’s pretty close to a coin flip. The committee may have used reasoning like that to discount the impact of our win over them.

If only we had a blowout win against a top 10 school like Bama does. Oh wait, they lost in their only game against a good team.
 

Disrespect.

-Utah hasn't beat anyone and lost to a 4-loss USC team.

-Georgia lost to a bad team.

-Alabama hasn't beat anyone yet above average yet and has a home loss.

-Oregon hasn't beat anyone above average yet and has a home loss.

Mind bending and it's also amazing that more people aren't pissed.

Oregon lost on a neutral field (played at Jerry World)
 



If only we had a blowout win against a top 10 school like Bama does. Oh wait, they lost in their only game against a good team.

My post was trying to explain a reason why they didn’t have us go from 17 to 4.

Alabama didn’t start at 17.


End of the day thing that I think a lot of people are missing here: these rankings are — by design — *NOT* supposed to be “plug in the numbers, and turn the crank”. We had those in the BCS and people hated it. Humans are able to say things like “despite the numbers, we can still agree that this team ‘looks and feels’ better than that team.” It’s subjective, by design, so we aren’t locked into an unattractive/bogus matchup like the Alabama/LSU natty game.
 
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It's BS and most informed people know it. r/CFB was indignant at MN being ranked so low and behind multiple one-loss teams without an impressive win. Stuart Mandel and Pat Forde have the Gophers at 4 and have consistently talked about their resume being better than several teams above them. Bottom line is that the committee still doesn't believe in MN. They think it's a cute story that will soon disintegrate. Part of that is due to the close non-con wins (ancient history) and part of it is the reputation (or lack thereof) of the program. As someone else posted, if Michigan, Wisconsin, or even Nebraska had Minnesota's resume right now, I guarantee they'd be ranked in the top 5.

Either way, how cool is this season, Gopher fans?! It really is surreal and I'm excited to continue soaking in as much of it as possible!
 

It's BS and most informed people know it. r/CFB was indignant at MN being ranked so low and behind multiple one-loss teams without an impressive win. Stuart Mandel and Pat Forde have the Gophers at 4 and have consistently talked about their resume being better than several teams above them. Bottom line is that the committee still doesn't believe in MN. They think it's a cute story that will soon disintegrate. Part of that is due to the close non-con wins (ancient history) and part of it is the reputation (or lack thereof) of the program. As someone else posted, if Michigan, Wisconsin, or even Nebraska had Minnesota's resume right now, I guarantee they'd be ranked in the top 5.

Either way, how cool is this season, Gopher fans?! It really is surreal and I'm excited to continue soaking in as much of it as possible!

I'm not worried at all. Keep winning and we'll move up. We actually play good teams. And there's a lot of SEC troubles ahead (they play each other). We, more than most teams, have games ahead of us that can move us up. Beating ranked Iowa and ranked Wisconsin will be big. And obviously the Ohio St. game is the one that would put us in the top 4. As I said in a different thread, there is even a remote chance that a loss to Wisconsin and a win over Ohio St in the championship game could put us in the playoffs...
 

Oregon lost on a neutral field (played at Jerry World)

Which was far from neutral- the Annual Jerry World game is essentially a home game for the southern team.


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Which was far from neutral- the Annual Jerry World game is essentially a home game for the southern team.


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Yeah, if I was from a northern or western team, there is 0 chance I'm playing at Jerry World.

Still probably easier than playing at Auburn though.
 

It's BS and most informed people know it. r/CFB was indignant at MN being ranked so low and behind multiple one-loss teams without an impressive win. Stuart Mandel and Pat Forde have the Gophers at 4 and have consistently talked about their resume being better than several teams above them. Bottom line is that the committee still doesn't believe in MN. They think it's a cute story that will soon disintegrate. Part of that is due to the close non-con wins (ancient history) and part of it is the reputation (or lack thereof) of the program. As someone else posted, if Michigan, Wisconsin, or even Nebraska had Minnesota's resume right now, I guarantee they'd be ranked in the top 5.

Either way, how cool is this season, Gopher fans?! It really is surreal and I'm excited to continue soaking in as much of it as possible!

Bolded hits the nail on the head.

They thought we'd lose to Penn State and then we'd go away. We won, so they had to deal with us.

I don't think they believe we are or should be favored in the Iowa game. Let's win that, and then see what they say!
 

Yeah, if I was from a northern or western team, there is 0 chance I'm playing at Jerry World.

Still probably easier than playing at Auburn though.

I agree.

I personally don't believe in major matchups in the non-conf, early part of the year. And if I was in charge of scheduling, I would never schedule any.


What I'd like to see is the Big Ten move to 10 game conference schedule, and then have every team pay for two guarantee home games every year in non-con against G5 or FBS Independent schools of that caliber. Exemptions would be made for Iowa v Iowa State, Nebraska vs a former Big 8 rival, or any school scheduling Notre Dame.


Save the major, cross-country, inter-P5 matchups for the post season.
 


I agree.

I personally don't believe in major matchups in the non-conf, early part of the year. And if I was in charge of scheduling, I would never schedule any.


What I'd like to see is the Big Ten move to 10 game conference schedule, and then have every team pay for two guarantee home games every year in non-con against G5 or FBS Independent schools of that caliber. Exemptions would be made for Iowa v Iowa State, Nebraska vs a former Big 8 rival, or any school scheduling Notre Dame.


Save the major, cross-country, inter-P5 matchups for the post season.

I'm not a big fan of that just because it is fun to play other teams from major conferences once in awhile.

Plus in that scenario Iowa (or anyone else that plays a power 5 team in the non-conference) would only have 6 home games some years. I don't see that happening.
 

My post was trying to explain a reason why they didn’t have us go from 17 to 4.

Alabama didn’t start at 17.


End of the day thing that I think a lot of people are missing here: these rankings are — by design — *NOT* supposed to be “plug in the numbers, and turn the crank”. We had those in the BCS and people hated it. Humans are able to say things like “despite the numbers, we can still agree that this team ‘looks and feels’ better than that team.” It’s subjective, by design, so we aren’t locked into an unattractive/bogus matchup like the Alabama/LSU natty game.

Good post. The other thing I can’t stand is the ‘eye test’. If we win out with close games in the last 3, I’m sure Minnesota will be subject to the ‘eye test’. They won’t measure up to Alabama, Georgia, or Oregon.

What’s contradictory is if they used the eye test last weekend, Minnesota looked as good as Alabama did bad for the first three quarters but that won’t be talked about. It’ll be that they barely squeaked by Penn State at home.


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I'm not a big fan of that just because it is fun to play other teams from major conferences once in awhile.

Plus in that scenario Iowa (or anyone else that plays a power 5 team in the non-conference) would only have 6 home games some years. I don't see that happening.

They’d get 5 home 4 away for conf games. As if that away game was the 10th conf game.

Then I’d switch the rules so only division record counts for winning the division. So the exemption game would be like a cross-division game. Basically makes the cross-division games similar to non-conf games, in a sense, which some people won’t like. I understand that.


I guess what I’d really like to see then, is two more schools added, required 7 games vs division that count toward winning division, then required three games schedules against cross-division that are essentially non-conf or teams equivalent to that. Then two guarantee G5/equiv games.
 
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Disrespect.

-Utah hasn't beat anyone and lost to a 4-loss USC team.

-Georgia lost to a bad team.

-Alabama hasn't beat anyone yet above average yet and has a home loss.

-Oregon hasn't beat anyone above average yet and has a home loss.

Mind bending and it's also amazing that more people aren't pissed.

Totally on board with you. Clemson as well, who have they played and beat? We should be third. They've set it up so that these teams ahead of us can keep playing crappy teams and win and still stay ahead of us. Rankings should be based on merit, not politics or recent tradition.
 

Good post. The other thing I can’t stand is the ‘eye test’. If we win out with close games in the last 3, I’m sure Minnesota will be subject to the ‘eye test’. They won’t measure up to Alabama, Georgia, or Oregon.

What’s contradictory is if they used the eye test last weekend, Minnesota looked as good as Alabama did bad for the first three quarters but that won’t be talked about. It’ll be that they barely squeaked by Penn State at home.


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Conference championships get weight in the final ranking. Alabama probably can’t be a conf champion and Georgia might lose their conf champ game. If we lose to Ohio St, then that’s that, but if we beat them, then who knows what will happen to Ohio St, but we’d be in (maybe as #4).
 

If you think the Gophers would beat GA in a three game, five game, whatever series, well you are certainly rowing the boat.

Yes, we'd beat Georgia. They lost to a lousy South Carolina team, and that was before they had all the injuries. I think they'll lose to Auburn as well.
 

We literally MUST beat Iowa. Nothing else matters.
 

They’d get 5 home 4 away for conf games. As if that away game was the 10th conf game.

Then I’d switch the rules so only division record counts for winning the division. So the exemption game would be like a cross-division game. Basically makes the cross-division games similar to non-conf games, in a sense, which some people won’t like. I understand that.


I guess what I’d really like to see then, is two more schools added, required 7 games vs division that count toward winning division, then required three games schedules against cross-division that are essentially non-conf or teams equivalent to that. Then two guarantee G5/equiv games.

Interesting. Not sure I like it but you've got me thinking.
 


They’d get 5 home 4 away for conf games. As if that away game was the 10th conf game.

Then I’d switch the rules so only division record counts for winning the division. So the exemption game would be like a cross-division game. Basically makes the cross-division games similar to non-conf games, in a sense, which some people won’t like. I understand that.


I guess what I’d really like to see then, is two more schools added, required 7 games vs division that count toward winning division, then required three games schedules against cross-division that are essentially non-conf or teams equivalent to that. Then two guarantee G5/equiv games.

Huh?
 


Conference championships get weight in the final ranking. Alabama probably can’t be a conf champion and Georgia might lose their conf champ game. If we lose to Ohio St, then that’s that, but if we beat them, then who knows what will happen to Ohio St, but we’d be in (maybe as #4).

A team that has lost their conference championship game has yet to be included in the playoff. I just don't see that changing. You can recover from losing in the regular season. You can ever recover form not winning your division. But you can't recover from losing in the conference championship.
 





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