(11-27-2016 12:29 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: (11-27-2016 12:21 AM)SouthEastAlaska Wrote: (11-27-2016 12:11 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: The Pac 12 was weak this year. The Penn St/Wisconsin winner brings a much better body of work when you put their schedule side by side with the one Washington played. I would not be surprised one bit if they leapfrog the Huskies. Clemson played a weak schedule too. We are talking about a Big Ten that has had 4 top 10 teams through the later part of the season once the pretenders were all exposed.
The PAC 12 is not weak. Number 2 in Massey and Sagarin rankings, and very likely to be the only conference outside the B1G with more than 2 teams in the CFP top 10 rankings after this week.
Nobody is going to jump Washington or Clemson if they win their conference championship games next weekend. Sorry.
I'd like to see Washington and Clemson play a conference schedule featuring Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St, Wisconsin, and Nebraska and see how many wins they get going through that gauntlet. A one loss team ranked #2 who ends the season with a win against a one loss team ranked #3 belongs in the top 4. The champion of the toughest league also should have a spot--a win over Wisconsin/Penn St is much more impressive than Colorado or VA Tech.
And yet mighty Penn State lost to Pitt. And the L.S.U. team that Wisconsin beat by 2 to open the season didn't turn out to be any better than middle of the road in the SEC. Mighty U.S.C. was roundly trounced by Alabama. Washington State lost to Boise and Portland. I do think at least the PAC got the best two teams into its conference championship game. That's a feat not accomplished by any other conference this year. I don't think the SEC can define #2. I don't think the Big 10 can distinguish between #2 through 4, and even their top school (Ohio State) has chinks.
The ACC????? Which Clemson shows up? The one that lost to Pitt at home, or the one that has blown out opposition. Their other entrant was blown out by Tennessee who was whipped tonight by Vanderbilt.
It's pretty clear that there is one team that looks to be complete, Alabama. We really don't know what everyone else has. As for computer rankings they've always sucked the sweat of dead donkey balls. They are as fair as their programmer's bias. Polls, like statistics, are for losers. I root for any method that allows the players to decide it on the field.
The PAC has only 6 eligible bowl teams and outside of Colorado and Washington there is nobody that looks the part. I sincerely doubt the strength of the PAC this year. Their early OOC was a disaster. Sure they beat up on each other in conference play, but that was after everyone else beat up on them including FCS and G5 schools.
The Big 10 is stronger in the middle than ever. The question is how strong are they at the top?
The SEC has Alabama. The strength of the rest of the conference is very much in question until they match up outside of the conference against schools ranked similarly.
I think you could put Virginia Tech, Florida, Auburn, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Utah, U.S.C. and Penn State in a round robin and with health being equal it would be very interesting. Then there is a bigger pool of schools just half a notch below those in the standings.
Michigan, Ohio State, Washington, and Clemson would be in that level just below Alabama.
I don't think there is any distinction in being in the top 15 or below this year and some in the top 15 don't deserve to be there at all.
Heck the SEC is going to have a very hard time filling the Sugar Bowl at this point. We don't have a strong #2 this year.
Face it. It's Alabama and everybody else. So those final 3 slots could go to just about any 3 of 6 schools.