Clemson No. 1 in CFP rankings

[smusic 00]

FYI from TCU board...
Vegas Rankings
(Top 10 CFB teams according to Vegas)

1) Ohio St
2) Alabama
3) TCU
4) Baylor
5) Clemson
6) LSU
7) Michigan St
Oklahoma
9) Stanford
10) Florida

Vegas is unbiased.

Who is "Vegas"? The first three sports book sites that came up on Google had TCU 9th, 5th, and 9th.

Vegas is whoever has the frogs the highest.

All rankings are biased, by definition. They are favoring certain teams over others based on particular biases. It could be number over wins or most yards or whatever, but it's a bias towards one squad over another.

[ReedFrawg]

Bama lost at home to a 2 loss team. This whole setup is a joke...just as much for the G5 as anyone. Have to push for 8 teams, 5 conf champs plus highest ranked G5 and 2 at large.

[smusic 00]

It's still early.

[mrydel]

Bama lost at home to a 2 loss team. This whole setup is a joke...just as much for the G5 as anyone. Have to push for 8 teams, 5 conf champs plus highest ranked G5 and 2 at large.

Have to disagree. Look at the discussion already taking place. It would be much more muted with 8., especially with conference champs. You do not want a weak conference champ to take the place of more deserving. The Big 12(10) just needs to man up and have a championship game and honestly have one true champion.

[ReedFrawg]

Bama lost at home to a 2 loss team. This whole setup is a joke...just as much for the G5 as anyone. Have to push for 8 teams, 5 conf champs plus highest ranked G5 and 2 at large.

Have to disagree. Look at the discussion already taking place. It would be much more muted with 8., especially with conference champs. You do not want a weak conference champ to take the place of more deserving. The Big 12(10) just needs to man up and have a championship game and honestly have one true champion.

That's fine with me but a championship game doesn't fix the problem. Win your conference and you are in.

[mrydel]

You would go crazy if you had a year like last year, 8 teams, and you were left out due to a 3 loss ACC conference champion.

[Pony Boss]

Bama lost at home to a 2 loss team. This whole setup is a joke...just as much for the G5 as anyone. Have to push for 8 teams, 5 conf champs plus highest ranked G5 and 2 at large.

This. Move to 8 team playoffs.

[mrydel]

I used to think that way, but 4 is beautiful. Forces teams to up their competition and has people screaming from the first day the first list is announced. None of this discussion takes place if you go to conference champs.

My only dislike is the human factor in the selection committee, but that will not ever go away until they decide to let the computers have the final say.

[MustangStealth]

Make it 32 teams.

10 conference champs
8 divisional champs/conference runners-up
1 independent
9 at large
1 wildcard for the team with the coolest alternate uniform
2 drawn at random from a bucket
1 SMU

[Dukie]

You would go crazy if you had a year like last year, 8 teams, and you were left out due to a 3 loss ACC conference champion.

Sorry, even if FSU had had three losses instead of zero going into the playoff last year, how exactly would Baylor/TCU, under the committee's rankings, not been in the playoff as Big "12" champion and the first at-large team?

My take on four is that yes, it creates a ton of drama and a feeling of urgency--but only around who Barry Alvarez and company think is #4 versus #5. I'd much rather have the drama of fourth-seeded Ohio State facing off on the field against fifth-seeded Baylor than the drama of "What will the committee do with five P5 conferences [plus an occasional Memphis/Boise] and four slots?!?"

I follow FCS closely most years. FCS started with a 4-team playoff, then 12, then 16, now 24. Each time that happens, the drama over who is selected goes down, because the first team left out at #5 is much angrier about it and has much better season results than the first team left out at #13, and so on. I have no problem with replacing committee drama with on-the-field results, particularly in going from 4 to 8 teams. I don't think you can go beyond 8 for schedule reasons at the FBS level.

And if we had had an 8-team playoff last year, the first team left out, based on the committee's final rankings, would have been three-loss Ole Miss. That is a lot different than leaving out Baylor and TCU (and the other two in, assuming two at-large and one G5 guarantee, would have been #7 Mississippi State and #20 Boise).

[CalallenStang]

Bama lost at home to a 2 loss team. This whole setup is a joke...just as much for the G5 as anyone. Have to push for 8 teams, 5 conf champs plus highest ranked G5 and 2 at large.

10 Conference Champs or no auto-bids. Time to end the caste system.

[East Coast Mustang]

People get too bent out of shape about these rankings so early, though. I think Ohio State was #16 in the inaugural poll last year, and Mississippi State was #1. Teams who are deserving will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves in the coming weeks

[Pony Boss]

Make it 32 teams.

10 conference champs
8 divisional champs/conference runners-up
1 independent
9 at large
1 wildcard for the team with the coolest alternate uniform
2 drawn at random from a bucket
1 SMU

This. SMU needs an automatic berth.

[PSCA]

A lot of football left ... this will change. Many in the top 10 still have to play each other ... OSU has Mich-State and Mich back-back and on the road ... Ala-LSU ... Baylor-TCU ... OSU-OU etc. etc. Too early to worry with.

[West Coast Johnny]

The Big 12(10) just needs to man up and have a championship game and honestly have one true champion.

Ten team conferences are awesome. Regional football. Home & home basketball. Everyone plays everyone. Big 12 right now is the only conference that has things right - but sadly, market forces and money has forced mega conferences on us and we will have to endure Nebraska versus Rutgers & South Carolina versus Texas A&M.