Uof〽️ #6

Submitted by lebriarjr on November 9th, 2021 at 9:31 PM

College Football Playoff 

victors2000

November 10th, 2021 at 7:27 AM ^

The other elephant in the room is Alabama, what the hell have they done? They've beaten nobodys, they haven't won convincingly. They have a loss to a two loss team. If Cincinnati and Oklahoma are getting jobbed over lackluster wins, why aren't the Crimson Tide?

ak47

November 10th, 2021 at 8:20 AM ^

It’s the exact same argument for Michigan over msu, the committee thinks they are better. And bama being at 2 is why that is a bad argument you don’t want to be the decision making process as funny as this weeks ranking is. You can’t not have a problem with Michigan over msu but have a problem with bama at #2

jdib

November 10th, 2021 at 5:14 AM ^

Of course they do, Mel is riding as high as he'll go.  He's reached that Hoke 11-2 level.  It will come crashing down.  He left Colorado high and dry after telling them he's committed.  There's no reason why he wouldn't do it to MSU.  They are delusional in thinking that just simply giving him a huge paycheck will keep him there.  LSU has better resources, better athletes regionally, and a much better pedigree for championships.

MSU is smoking the "good stuff" thinking Mel will stay

swn

November 9th, 2021 at 10:16 PM ^

I mean forget the call. They have gone in 4-1 in games in which they were outgained in. Three of those they were massively outgained. One of those being an at home battle against us. Meanwhile they just got pounded by Purdue.

They have worse wins and a considerably worse loss and the head to head win was at home in a game in which they needed every break to win.

ak47

November 9th, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^

I mean that’s fine and all but it’s a terrible decision to try to parse things like that. It’s also logically inconsistent to then have Oregon above osu. This ranking is objectively hilarious because of the reaction from msu but nobody should really be celebrating the committee being inconsistent and valuing perception over games on the field 

ak47

November 9th, 2021 at 11:28 PM ^

Ok and OSU is objectively the better team than Oregon by basically any measure. Doing one without the other just screams that what they are really saying is they think Michigan is a bigger brand that will lead to better rankings 

Also, I don't really think its a good thing for the decision to essentially be a power ranking rather than actually based on results on the field. This is how you get two SEC teams constantly. Georgia and Alabama are two of the four best teams in college football, is it really a better system to know Georgia losing to Alabama in the championship game means nothing? Why even bother having a national championship game? Just do a power rank at the end of the season and give the championship to Georgia

Newton Gimmick

November 9th, 2021 at 11:46 PM ^

I don't necessarily think it's inconsistent to reward a head-to-head win for the road team (e.g. Oregon in Columbus) but not for a 3-4 point head-to-head win for a home team.  Point spreads generally give 3-4 points to a home team, so such a margin implies the teams are about even.  It's why we use the caveat "on a neutral field" so often.

BTW did the committee spokesman explicitly say that Oregon is ahead of OSU strictly due to head-to-head, or are we just deducing their reasoning (when other factors -- like OSU's poor schedule thus far -- might be involved)?

canzior

November 10th, 2021 at 8:59 AM ^

I think the committee is saying Oregon's loss might be better than MSUs.  They lost by 7 on the road, in OT.  But beat Ohio St on the road, convincingly.  OSU has yet to beat a ranked team. 

MSU has 1 ranked win that the committee is all but saying shouldn't have happened, and 1 bad loss to a 3 loss team.

I pound the table for head to head, if all things are equal...but if you lose to an unranked opponent by double digits?  Ehh...

Newton Gimmick

November 10th, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^

Agreed, the argument against Oregon is that Stanford loss, but Stanford is a *much* better team with Tanner McKee at QB.  He played against Oregon but not in their blowout losses.  (Jack West is one of the worst QBs ever -- he should be renamed Hunter Johnson West.)  A good committee would consider this.  Also, Oregon led the entire way against Stanford.  Stanford tied it at the end (helped by an arguably bad PI call).  Whereas MSU trailed throughout a double digit loss to Purdue.

ahw1982

November 10th, 2021 at 10:11 AM ^

Oregon beat OSU at OSU, in a game where they lead the entire way, and without the best player in the country.

Oregon lost to Stanford, at Stanford, in a game where they got jobbed by the refs on what should've been the last play of the game.  Discounting Oregon's loss to Stanford is actually consistent with discounting Michigan's loss to MSU for similar reasons (close loss, hostile territory, questionable and hugely significant calls).

Also, the hypothesis that Michigan's higher ranking has something to do with being a bigger brand...why didn't that result in Ohio State getting ranked higher than Oregon?

victors2000

November 10th, 2021 at 6:29 AM ^

In that case, it's subjective. I mean, factually, yeah we were jobbed, but ultimately we lost the game. Alabama is subjective; they aren't as dominating as they've been in the past, but there they are at number 2 because people's opinions say they belong there. Objectively, Ohio State has been more dominant and probably should have been number 2 weeks ago.

Cam

November 9th, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^

They aren't valuing "perception" over "games on the field." They looked at the games on the field and concluded that Michigan is a better team, which is a fact recognized by everyone outside the Axe-scented cesspool of East Lansing. 

None of this matters anyway. MSU isn't beating Penn State or Ohio State. I'm not sure they're winning another game this year. 

swn

November 9th, 2021 at 11:25 PM ^

Oregon won by 7 in Columbus in completely non flukey action. Not at all comparable.

Bottom line is we are better on paper and we would be favored on a neutral game.

Head to head is obviously not a logically sound approach unless you think Stanford is better than Oregon and OSU.

ak47

November 9th, 2021 at 11:35 PM ^

MSU winning that game wasn't 'flukey'. According to the advanced stats that get used to prove Michigan is better than MSU, MSU's win over Michigan was less flukey than Michigan's win over Nebraska.

OSU is clearly better than Oregon on paper and would be favored in a head to head. Over course you can't rely solely on head to head but when you have two similar resumes, which given that MSU is 7th is clearly the case here, head to head should absolutely be a tiebreaker. Literally the entire internet I have seen agrees a ranking that has Michigan over MSU but Oregon over OSU is a stupid inconsistent system.

Newton Gimmick

November 9th, 2021 at 11:55 PM ^

That "literally the entire internet" thinks something hardly makes that thing correct

The strictly-head-to-head argument falls apart quickly because you always have the unspoken caveat: "when comparing teams with the exact same number of losses."  (Otherwise you would have to put Purdue ahead of MSU).

That means that if MSU loses 49-0 to Maryland, their second loss helps U-M because it means that we are no longer held back due to being compared to MSU.  That doesn't make any sense, because MSU is that much worse a loss for U-M.  H2H and 'quality of loss' are conflicting criteria.

UgLi Eric

November 10th, 2021 at 5:42 AM ^

Oregon was also without it's best player during that OSU win. They won on the road against a spread that highly favored OSU (14.5 points). They could be a better team today than OSU, but with OSU's improvements it's also difficult to show certainty. Hence we have a group of humans taking a stand and another group of human voices disagreeing. 

1VaBlue1

November 10th, 2021 at 8:21 AM ^

The only reason you don't like it is because it does nothing to help you validate your hate towards Harbaugh.  Face it, all you do is complain about Harbaugh's teams.  Now that he has a team that looks as good as the one in 2016, you're just manufacturing shit to dump on it.

HenneAndTheJets

November 9th, 2021 at 10:29 PM ^

If they’re going to rank us ahead of MSU because of terrible refereeing, they should make that clear. I would be all for this ranking if that were the case. But the reasoning that guy gave was terrible. It doesn’t matter if Michigan is the better team if they lost to MSU. If we’re just going to do power rankings, why even play the game?

caup

November 10th, 2021 at 12:05 AM ^

No, let me clear this up for you:
The committee does not think it was a “flukey loss.”

The committee watched the game and saw the blatant SCREW JOB by a horribly incompetent officiating crew.

MSU getting exposed as a fraud in a double-digit loss to an unranked 5-3 team in their very next game was all the confirmation the committee needed.

Midukman

November 10th, 2021 at 9:55 AM ^

Exactly. Plus factor in that the rubber meets the road the next 3 weeks for any team not named Cincinnati. If MSU, OSU or Michigan wins out than they’re in. Bama beating Georgia throws a wrench in Cincinnati’s hope and I look for Oregon to drop 1 somewhere,  probably Utah. I like Cincinnati and would be cheering more if Fickel wasn’t their coach but does anyone actually think if they squeak in at 4 that they would have a snowballs chance in hell against Georgia? More times than not the committee gets this right in the end.