(12-03-2017 09:15 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(12-03-2017 08:01 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(12-03-2017 05:49 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  So, we still don't know what it is exactly that leads the committee to do whatever it does.

It's great for creating drama around the sport, but little else.

We ought to just get rid of the committee and go back to the computers.

Agree 100%, at least then you know what you have to do to get in. The Pairwise in college hockey is transparent and leaves no room for monkey business like we have now.

I think the BCS system for rankings was actually the optimum--the polls reflect the human element, popular opinion about the best teams, the computers made an attempt at an objective evaluation. And the formula made a mixture of the two. I don't think there were any big "mistakes" in the last few years of the BCS--where the majority opinion was that the BCS got it seriously wrong. There was a lot of controversy about the Auburn-Alabama rematch, but Auburn winning justified their inclusion, and that was probably a major factor in going to 4 teams.

The biggest problem with the committee, in my opinion, is that it's such a small group that it's easy to argue almost any kind of bias or motivation--big-name-school bias, doing-ESPNs-bidding, SEC bias, personal animosities.

So, I took six different rankings: The selection committee, AP and Coaches' polls, Sagarin, Massey and Colley Matrix. I threw out the highest and lowest ranking for each team, and averaged the rest. These are the results, compared with the committee rank alone:

......Team.......CFP....Composite

Clemson...........1........1
Oklahoma.........2........2
Georgia............3........3
Alabama..........4........4
Ohio State........5........5
Wisconsin.........6........6
Auburn............7........7
USC................8........9
Penn State.......9........8
Miami.............10......11
Washington.....11......13
UCF................12......10
Stanford.........13......15
Notre Dame....14......12
TCU................15.....14

The first seven are identical, and Penn State and USC take turns at #8 and #9. The only practical result that would be different from the selection committee's decisions would be that Notre Dame would get the last NY6 spot instead of Washington.

How much better could the committee have done?