The polls in college football pretty much don’t matter anymore, what with the playoff selection committee and all. Well, the selection committee will have a poll that is pretty important since it will determine who the best teams are and that will tie in to where they are going to end up playing. The preseason polls are all about perception. I’m not meaning to throw any shade on the selection committee already, you know since they haven’t done anything, but let’s be honest, they aren’t going to concentrate on the smaller leagues unless there is a dynamo.
That’s where the preseason polls and that perception comes into play. Using the USA Today top 25, there were 0 ‘other 5’ conference schools in the top 25. From Florida State to Washington, all 25 are power conference schools. Strike one off the bat already for Cincinnati and the rest of the others. Sure, this poll is meaningless, but the perception is already out that none of these teams are as good as the others.
The committee’s first poll doesn’t come out until October 28, which could be a great, great thing for Cincinnati. The Bearcats by that time will have played Ohio State and Miami. Add that to a solid Toledo team and a win at SMU, a 7-0 Cincinnati team could be looking at the best spot for the at large teams. UCF also does. They play Penn State, Missouri and BYU before the poll will be released. That sounded dirty. Central Florida is considered the best of the rest, followed by Marshall, BYU, Boise State, Louisiana-Lafayette then Cincinnati. It doesn’t seem like it would be hard to La-Laf to fall out of contention.
Marshall is an interesting team and the one that made me question this whole process. The Thundering Herd play absolutely no one. They do have 6 road games this season, but they are against Miami University, Akron, Old Dominion, FIU, Southern Miss and UAB. Marshall lost a pair of conference games last year, to Middle Tennessee and to Rice in the C-USA championship. Middle Tennessee and Rice both travel to Marshall, as does Ohio, who beat Marshall at home last season. They have a recipe for an undefeated season.
Let’s not leave out BYU in this discussion. They have a pretty tough schedule with games at Texas and at California. Plus, they play at UConn, at UCF and at Boise State. They also host Houston and Virginia. The Cougars could have a slate that separates them from the rest of the Others, even with a loss tacked on.
One would think that if Cincinnati, or UCF for American pride sake, would pull off a huge win over Ohio State, Miami, Penn State or Missouri, that they would be in the driver’s seat for the Other 5 bid as long as they won the AAC slate undefeated and no one else went insane. Boise State plays Ole Miss, BYU and Louisiana-Lafayette, meaning a team higher perceived than Cincinnati will lose. Multiple teams will lose because they play each other.
The question in my head the last couple of days that brought up 500 words of rambling is this, could Cincinnati’s bid for a high profile bowl game be over on October 11 because other teams are expected to be better in late July? Ohio State is one of the best teams in the nation. There is no shame in losing that game. None at all. Miami looks to be turning things back around. Losing at Miami bears no shame either. But in the span of 3 weeks, two losses could end hopes for anything better than the Miami Beach Bowl. Hell, even losing only to Ohio State (depending how UC lost to Ohio State) could cost them so much. If the committee only sees Cincinnati lose to Ohio State and Miami in one of those deceiving 42-20 scores each time while only seeing that a Marshall or Boise State or a Louisiana-Lafayette win games against worse opponents, will this be a case of perception is reality and the reality becomes a Cincinnati team ends up in a lower tier game just because another team had a fortunate schedule?
We don’t know how the selection committee rankings will work, but I think it’s safe to say that they won’t be vastly different than the human polls, at least in regards to the smaller conference teams. If Marshall is 8-0 and ranked in the human polls, would that be mirrored with the selection committee? This the unfortunate reality that we are a part of now. Instead of winning a league and getting a seat at the table, you have to schedule tough, win your league and hope that the selection committee doesn’t completely write you off if you come up short in swinging for the fences. That’s in addition to hoping UCF can’t repeat last season, Marshall loses to Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette falls at Troy, New Mexico State has what it takes to topple Boise State and hoping BYU doesn’t run the table.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
