The positions of Alabama Football and the Cincinnati Bearcats in the first CFP rankings caused aggressive disagreement from fans and pundits. In fairness to the overreaction, as we published Tuesday night, the Alabama Crimson Tide was ranked as high as it could have possibly been. Much of the college football world has exploded over the alleged favoritism shown the Crimson Tide by the Selection Committee.
The counterpart to the Crimson Tide angst is outrage Cincinnati was cheated by a No. 6 ranking. Many of the defenders of Cincinnati probably believe the Bearcats really are one of college football’s best four teams. Others crying foul, are likely seizing an opportunity to use the Bearcats ranking to attack the current Playoff system. More than a few tie the Tide’s and the Bearcat’s rankings together as proof college football’s national championship system is broken.
A sampling of Twitter responses and snippets of published stories are included below. Since they are opinions, they are valid. That does not mean this post is an endorsement of any of them. Last night we published a positive review of the first rankings and that opinion has not changed.
- (Pat Forde) “I hate it… This is a tired refrain that never ends. The Bearcats at No. 6 is at least three slots too low, and this is a program that needed to be in the top four from the start to withstand the strength of schedule slide that seemingly awaits it. This shouldn’t be a surprise after the way the committee disrespected Cincinnati last year, but it’s freshly insulting.”
- (Ross Dellenger) “I don’t like it, but, hey, it could be worse right? The Bearcats have the worst strength of schedule (94th) of any team in the Top 10. I’ve been in those mock CFP selection meetings in Dallas and I can tell you that committee members rely on schedule strength just as much—or more—than any other metric of data.”
Joel Klatt had an even more extreme response.
For the record I am in favor of any measure that would dilute or strip power from this ridiculous 13 person committee...The structure of @CFBPlayoff has done more harm to our great sport than good...My hope is that expansion will fix some of the issues...I won't hold my breath
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) November 2, 2021
Perusing Twitter Tuesday night and Wednesday, most of the opinions of fans were strongly negative. Instead of a long string of tweets, the one below, responding to Klatt, provides a summary of what was being said.
The BCS system was broken, but not as bad as the smoke filled room of the college football playoff committee that can justify anything with the “eye-test.” Until data and analytics drive an a portion of playoff ranking, expanding the number of teams won’t help solve the problem.
— Dave Lipke (@DaveLipke) November 3, 2021
Lipke’s was one of many tweets calling for a return to the computer calculations of the BCS era. In case, Alabama football fans have forgotten, the use of computer ratings in the BCS formula was loathed by many and often described as fraudulent.
Alabama Football and future CFP rankings
Where do the current rankings and the resulting furor leave Alabama Football? The Crimson Tide remains in the same position it was in before the first rankings were released. It must win out. Only the slightest of chances might allow a two-loss Crimson Tide in the final four. More realistically, a two-loss Tide has no chance.
Closing with an opinion – the Bearcats are only a top ten team because of so much weakness across college football. Their resume is suspect and it will not improve.