You’d be hard pressed to find many college football fans who weren’t in favor of the new four-team College Football Playoff system that took effect last year. Sure the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) provided it’s own share of memorable lunacy, but the playoff is what the streets clamored for; because who wants a computer having that much influence over deciding a national champion? Having the players decide the games on the field, like virtually every other sport everywhere, is far more preferable.
The need for winning with “style points” has always loomed over college football, particularly during the BCS era. With the two best teams in the country being largely determined by a MacBook Air – with only partial qualitative input from human eyeballs — coaches and teams came to the logical conclusion that winning every game by widest margin possible was paramount in reaching the highest possible ranking within a computer-based system.
Now the BSC is gone and a 13-person committee selects college football’s final four. However many fans and pundits appear to still be hung up on the importance of “style points”, as the new system is supposed to rank teams largely based on how a team is performing at that time, rather than factoring in things like a team’s record the previous season. As a result, Florida State’s inclusion in last year’s College Football Playoff produced substantial bellyaching across the country. While the Seminoles didn’t lose a game in the regular season, the then-reigning national champions were wildly unspectacular in reaching that undefeated mark— then they were bodied by Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
That same Florida State stigma is now being slapped on this year’s reigning champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes. FSU went the entire season without a loss, but still found themselves demoted to #3 in the playoff seeding, much to the dismay of many fans. After Ohio State has looked anything but sharp in every game since their opener against Virginia Tech (struggling mightily against far less talented opponents like Indiana and Northern Illinois; even their 38-0 home win over Hawaii seemed uninspired), writers and Twitter critics alike have campaigned to have the Buckeyes removed from the top spot, or in some cases even the top 10.
Is this fair?
Well, aside from the fact that “style points” is a fairly abstract or at the very least subjective concept anyway, this line of thinking greatly reduces the importance of the most pivotal criteria when determining the top four teams in the nation: winning.
Navigating an entire college football season without taking an L is exceedingly difficult. This is why even in the most controversial years, only two schools from FBS power conferences can seem to pull it off. As fun as it is for teams to have convincing wins against quality opponents, margin of victory is not to be considered by the selection committee (it’s in their bylaws). Furthermore, there’s something to be said for defeating your opponent every single Saturday. If this were easy, Alabama would still be undefeated and Oregon would still be in the Top 25. And if the Bucks were to drop due to their close victories, who should ascend to the top? Baylor? Because they killed teams like Kansas, Rice and Lamar?
Perhaps the best illustration of what the Bucks are being asked to do can be found within the case of Ole Miss. The Rebels were flying high after they clobbered Alabama in Tuscaloosa three weeks ago. But last week the hunter became the hunted as the newly minted #3 ranked team was DEMOLISHED in a prime time game at Florida. Winning is hard enough— winning with expectations is an entirely different animal (see the 2011 Miami Heat, or Serena Williams in the U.S. Open). Ole Miss wasn’t even carrying the burden of #1 and still cracked. While criticism of their schedule is somewhat fair, the pressure Ohio State deals with on a weekly basis is unlike anything any other team must face.
Sidebar: I say criticizing the schedule is “somewhat fair” because while many of the Big Ten programs appear to be down, the rankings of teams from other conferences (SEC) are often disproportionate. So because other schools in the conference have won championships in recent years, a team like Georgia at 4-0 is ranked #8, but a 5-0 Northwestern team can’t sneak into the top 12 in the AP or Coaches Polls. When the Big Ten (or any other conference really) beats up itself, they label it a weak conference. When the SEC cannibalizes itself, they call it competitive.
Every time the Buckeyes step on the field, it’s the other team’s national championship. In addition to being #1, Ohio State must carry the weight of being the defending champs, everyone discrediting their schedule and their conference, and Urban Meyer’s handling of the quarterback situation is under America’s largest microscope. Still, the Buckeyes aren’t the only team feeling the heat.
People called for a drop in Michigan State’s ranking after they barely beat Purdue and after they beat Rutgers in the final minutes last night. They did the same with TCU after they lucked into a win at Texas Tech, and again after their amazing comeback against Kansas State yesterday (it should be noted that winning a road night game in college football is really hard). The fifth ranked Utah Utes just escaped a Cal comeback last night too, but still didn’t escape the criticism. You can bet Baylor, LSU and Clemson will all have their narrow victories called into question as well at some point down the road. But sometimes narrow victories are what makes good teams great.
Ezekiel Elliott and the Buckeyes are still outpacing the competition.
It demonstrates a team’s ability to rise to the occasion in crisis and play their best football when the stakes are highest. It shows a coach’s ability to adapt under pressure. And, if done consistently, it can unveil a team’s resolve, because not every team has that “pull a win out of your ass when playing your C game” ability. Winning ugly is not a crime. None of these teams should be punished at this stage of the season for winning a close contest. There’s more than enough games left on the schedule to filter out the pretenders as many of these schools have yet to play one another. The argument here is not that the top five should remain static at all times, but to temper expectations so to prevent bogus overreactions every seven days.
Despite a first half fight with Maryland yesterday, Ohio State has now won 19 straight games and 26 straight Big Ten regular season contests. The first official College Football Playoff rankings won’t come out until early November, but as long as there’s a “0” under the loss column, by hook or by crook, Ohio State should be #1, just like Florida State should’ve been last season. And there should be minimal movement amongst the TCUs, Baylors, Michigan States and Utahs of the world as well, provided they’re still undefeated.
Heavy is the head who wears the crown, but he who possesses it always connotes royalty. Now that college football is decided by a bracket, the phrase “survive and advance” should no longer apply solely to March Madness.