Muck FcDisney wrote:failureofafriend wrote:South Carolina was ranked when UGA played them. Texas A&M was not ranked when Clemson played them. Georgia won big. Clemson won because of a phantom touchback. Texas A&M is now ranked. South Carolina is not. Texas A&M was ranked because they played Clemson close. South Carolina is not because they did not play Georgia close. This does not mean that Texas A&M is better than South Carolina or that Texas A&M will win when they play.
We really don't know how good anyone is until midway through the season. All rankings are based on preseason projections. Washington and Miami being ranked high have boosted Auburn and LSU. Then LSU beat Auburn, which boosts LSU more. Georgia vs LSU could both be top 5 teams at the time, and it will look like the best win of the season to date. By the end of the season LSU could have 3-4 losses.
South Carolina could end up being a top 10 team. They could go 10-1 and beat Clemson. They could go 5-6 and miss a bowl game. We don't know how good that win was because nobody (except those that played week 0) has played more than 3 games.
It's that way everywhere. All we can do is enjoy the games we have, and then come up with some form of judgment of who is in the mix come Halloween.
Good reason not to worry about current rankings.
Barring the unthinkable, the playoffs will be Bama, OSU, and some combination of Clemson, Oklahoma (possibly Oklahoma St?), Georgia, and maybe Stanford. But it's a long season, and the unthinkable usually happens.
I was joking yesterday to assume the following:
1. ACC Champ Clemson with 1 or 0 losses
2. Big 10 Champ Ohio State with 1 or 0 losses
3. Big 12 Champ Oklahoma with 1 or 0 losses
4. Pac 12 Champ Washington with 1 loss to Auburn
5. Auburn beats Bama, Bama beats LSU, and all 3 finish in a 3 way tie for the SEC West.
6. 10-2 Georgia, with regular season losses to Auburn and LSU, wins the SEC title game (likely against LSU, assuming Florida finishes with a better SEC record than Tennessee).
WTF does the committee do? I could see plausible reasons to leave the SEC out. I could see a plausible reason to put in Auburn who beat Bama, Georgia, and Washington. I could see the committee choosing Alabama because it is Alabama. I could see multiple SEC teams in, neither of which played for the SEC title.