Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The college football rankings have been flawed for many years. They favor schools that have been in the top 5 for the last 5 years which the fans for those teams will agree with, the fans against those teams will disagree with.

The biggest issue that we have with the college football rankings is that it is not just the rankings that they take into consideration when ranking teams.

What Examples do we Have?

Alabama lost in week 6 to Texas A&M who was unranked. Texas A&M almost lost to CU 10-7, lost to Arkansas who was unranked at the time 20-10, and lost to another unranked MS State 26-23.

Texas A&M showed that they are a struggling program that ended up besting Alabama and showing Alabama is not the same Bama that has dominated college football for many years.

Alabama and Their Struggles This Year

Alabama almost lost to Florida as well and Florida is not ranked currently. That is 2 teams that almost beat Bama that have no rankings next to their name and is something that should be considered.

Alabama in most years would have dominated these teams with ease and this conversation would be a moot point. However, we are talking about this year, not what you did last year or the year before.

And in no way are we saying that Alabama is not a playoff team because obviously, they have a top 3 team talent. No one can argue otherwise or they are blind with hatred.

How the Ranking Unfolded After Their Loss to Texas A&M

Following the loss, Alabama was ranked 5th above Ohio State and Penn State. So why is this an issue, after all, we are talking about the best college football program in recent college football history?

The issue is that Ohio State was ranked 4th and lost to a 12 ranked Oregon and was dropped to 11th in the rankings the following week. Penn State lost to Iowa who was ranked 2nd at the time and was ranked 7th.

Many will say, “Well it’s Bama they should be ranked ahead because it’s Bama”. The counter-argument to that statement is if it is Bama then Bama should not have lost to an unranked team.

Ohio State and Penn State did not lose to an unranked team at the time so Bama should not get the benefit of just being Bama. Or why should we take the football rankings seriously to begin with?

We ran a poll and asked our viewers if they believe Penn State and Ohio State should be penalized more than Bama and it wasn’t even close. The majority said No, Penn State and Ohio State should not be dropped behind Bama.

Are the Rankings Fair, Obviously Not and Here is Why

Moving forward a week Iowa lost to Purdue who is an unranked team and was drastically dropped in the college football rankings to 11th. Rightfully so most would feel and we do not disagree.

If the rankings were fair they would have ranked Ohio State and Penn State above Bama. Putting Ohio State at 5th Penn State at 6th and Alabama at 7th.

After this latest week’s game, Penn State lost to Illinois who is unranked and will get crushed in the college football rankings. So many people would say that is why Penn State should not be ranked ahead of the Crimson Tide in previous weeks.

However, the other argument can be made that it was exactly what should have happened in the first place. Penn State loss to Illinois would have bumped them out anyway moving Ohio State to 4th and Bama to 5th.

Rankings Should Matter Over Everything or There is no Point to Them

In week 8, #3 Oklahoma almost lost to Kansas who is 1-5 and the #2 Cincinnati Bearcats almost lost to Navy who is 1-5 as well. There is no one at this moment who believes that those 2 teams are really going to stand a chance in the playoffs.

So what should it be, how good the team is or should it be who they played? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Or else that would immediately push Oklahoma and Cincinnati out of contention.

Oklahoma only wins close games and most of them are to teams that are less than talented. They are also not improving as the year goes on, it appears as if they are getting worse or at least staying neutrally okay at best.

Cincinnati’s biggest win was against Notre Dame who is not looking good as the year continues. So should the Bearcats really get a playoff chance on the premise that they beat Notre Dame?

Being undefeated is great but their strength of schedule is the worst of any of the top 10 ranked teams. If that is the case there would be many teams chomping that they should be in playoff talk as well.

More Big 10 teams were ranked in the top 10 than any other conference and the SEC was 2nd. If you put Ohio State or many other talented teams against the same schedule as the Bearcats it would likely be a cakewalk for them.

How do you Make the College Football Rankings Better?

There is only one real way to do this and that is to extend the number of teams in the playoffs to 8 instead of 4. That way there will not be so many teams that get their playoff hopes ripped from their hands for a single loss and teams who go undefeated will get rewarded a playoff chance even though their strength of schedule is weak.

There are a million more teams in college playing for playoff hopes compared to only 32 in the NFL. If there were only 4 teams that made it to the playoffs in the NFL their viewership ratings would likely dwindle. People would be fighting left and right about who should be in and out.

It also gives the chance for more exciting football when the college playoffs kick-off. The NFL sees upsets every year in the playoffs and the same thing would likely happen in college football as well if given the chance.

There needs to be a change in how we rank teams or at least not make the game so political just to have certain teams end up in the college football playoffs. Then Bama could get truly ranked where they should have been, still make the playoffs, and likely be one of the last teams standing at the end of it all.

DodderyCribb

DodderyCribb, A.K.A. Dodds, or Doddery, has been dominating the gaming industry for over two decades. He has defied the odds in Madden by trading for “impossible” players and mastering Madden contracts to name a few. Dodds has made signature content, such as the SAR, SAT, Contract Reset Method, and much more. You can also find him playing and writing content for mobile games.

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