College Football Playoff Rankings 2015 (ND #8...)

[Fbolt]

I feel ND plays a tough schedule year in and year out. Those saying that it's not tough enough this year is because they listen to the TV/Radio hype.

Another issue is the AP and Coaches poll, which inevitably look to hammer ND and sway the playoff committee votes by pushing ND down a few slots and filling the top 4 with conference teams. The committee is going to keep on doing what their doing and ND will be 3. Bank on it.

Oh, and don't believe the BS hype all the sport shows throw out there. Nothing more than sensationalizing and trying to play devil's advocate by talking ND down. It's really all they have to talk about - despite the lack of truth.

 

[CoachB]

I like your style, but I'm pretty sure vegas wouldn't agree with you on some of those.

Thanks, but would you personally disagree with any? I tried to be objective as possible. Taking the names out of it.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Just some quick research, lets compare Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma opponents wise from worst to first.

12th best - Akron over UMASS. Akron beat them 17-13 this year, so its a toss up
11th - Boston College over Kansas. Notre Dame's 11th best opponent has the top defense in the country. A defense that the Irish put up 450 yards on. Kansas is just putrid at a winless 0-11. 1-1
10th - Wake Forest over Tulsa. Tulsa lost to any decent AAC team. They just beat the chumps. Although they still scored 38 on OK. 2-1 ND
9th - Georgia Tech over Iowa St. Georgia Tech disappointed compared to expectations this year, however, they did beat Florida State and five of their losses were one score or less. Iowa St. lost to Toledo, which was one of the best non-conference schools the Big 12 played. 3-1 ND
8th - Texas over Kansas State. Texas already beat KSU. ND destroyed Texas 38-3, while OK of course lost to them. KSU's big wins? UTSA, South Dakota, IA St. and LA Tech in OT. Man, a murderer's row that Big 12 plays. 4-1 ND
7th - Virginia over Texas. This would be a toss-up IMO. Virginia has four losses by one score or less. 5-1 ND
6th - USC over Texas Tech. This is just laughable. USC would just destory Tech. Who is Tech's best win? Iowa St? USC beat a good Utah team by 18. 6-1 ND
5th - Pittsburgh over WVU. This is another blowout. Pittsburgh is 8-3. Their three losses are a combined 31-2. ND, Iowa by 3, and a 10-1 NC. Also, NC is getting a ton of credit for their offense. ND scored 42 on them, NC 26. Who is WVU's best win? Texas Tech? Really? Doing some research, man the Big 12 schedules just horrendously. There is no way they can make the playoff. 7-1 ND
4th - Temple over Tennessee. Tennessee would win in name only. At least OK scheduled somebody OK with a big name. Tennessee is 7-4 with their best win being Bowling Green? Missouri? Temple hammered a decent Penn St by 17, and a good Memphis team by 19. 8-1 ND
3rd - Navy over TCU. This would be a bloodbath. The TCU team that OK beat by one at home had no Boykin, no Dotson, and no All-conference center, and half their D out with injury. The same TCU team beat hapless Kansas by six the previous week. Just pathetic. TCU, when healthy beat a bad Minn team by six, Stephen F. Austin, SMU, Tech, Texas, KSU, IA St. WVU...I mean...just awful. They finally played an average OK St. team and lost by 20. Talk about getting propped up playing nobodys. Then the Cowboys get a bunch of credit for beating an undefeated TCU. Really? Is nobody paying attention? Hopefully the committee is. Navy's only loss is ND of course. They beat the Tulsa team by 23, the same team OK beat by 14. And crushed a good Memphis team that beat Ole Miss by 25. 9-1 ND
2nd - Stanford over OK St. This would be a bloodbath too. Stanford would destory OK St. The Big 12 doesn't like those physical teams that will pop them in the mouth. As an Irish fan, this game worries me though. Stanford is really good. If ND doesn't beat them, its a moot point. The Pac 12 was awfully good this year. Ok St. just wasn't good. Cent. Mi, Cent Ark, UTSA, Tex by 3, KSU by 2, WVU in OT, IA St. by 4, lost to Baylor with 3rd qb. Just not good. 10-1 ND
1st - Clemson over Baylor. #1 team in the country who beat the Irish by 2 at home in a hurricane on a failed two point conversion. Baylor might be OK but hard to say, because they haven't played anyone. 11-1 ND. Don't tell me Oklahoma plays a tougher schedule. That is just ridiculous. I get that haters are gonna hate and there are reasons people don't like ND, but lets at least try to stay in touch with reality here. The 12th place game in a toss-up. Other than that, the Irish opponents get the clean sweep. If they beat Stanford, I think there is no choice but to do the right and obvious thing, put the deserving team in the playoff and vote Irish!

I like this. Would give you reps if I knew how to on tapatalk.


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[rocket66]

College Football Playoff Rankings 2015 (ND #4!!!)

College Football Playoff Rankings 2015 (ND #4!!!)

Smh at Danny Kanell bumping OU ahead of because of a "big win vs TCU". Uh, TCU's best win is against 6-4 West Virginia and they are absolutely crushed by injuries at this point. I just hope the committee uses common sense because that OU win really wasn't a lot better than our showing against BC.

I don't really care where we are ranked tonight as long as we are still ahead of the Big 12 teams going into the Stanford game, then we more or less can control our destiny with a strong showing.

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[JSBusch]

Smh at Danny Kanell bumping OU ahead of because of a "big win vs TCU". Uh, TCU's best win is against 6-4 West Virginia and they are absolutely crushed by injuries at this point. I just hope the committee uses common sense because that OU win really wasn't a lot better than our showing against BC.

I don't really care where we are ranked tonight as long as we are still ahead of the Big 12 teams going into the Stanford game, then we more or less can control our destiny with a strong showing.

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The other major issue is what the committee did when Seth Russell got hurt for Baylor. They dropped in the rankings until Stidham was identified as a legitimate threat in that system. Why bump Oklahoma when their offense looked like BC when Mayfield came off the field?

 

[Old Man Mike]

Remember that people like Danny Kannell are not real people stating real thoughts. He is an ESPN employee making statements to increase "excitement" in the viewing public. Think Mark May in "Lou Years." Fortunately the Committee doesn't have to create public media "hits", and tries to actually evaluate football.

I sometimes believe that even as knowledgeable a board as IE begins to believe that guys like this are saying things which actually matter. Go to the rare straight up commentators like Spielman and, usually, Herbstreit if we want honest personal opinions. Mostly Robert Smith does that too, although he swings from one view to another rather rapidly. I note with curiosity that all three of those guys graduated from OSU --- how the heck did THAT happen?

 

[johnnycando]

^
OMM

As always I appreciate the gravity you bring.

Agreed x1000.

I feel like our fans want us to come in behind the other 4 teams in this play off predicament.

Probably the same ones that inexplicably want us in a conference.

 

[Black Irish]

I'd like to see "A Season With the CFB Playoff Committee." I doubt it would happen, but it would be very interesting to get a fly-on-the-wall look how the decisions actually get made week to week.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Here's a Phil Steele ranking called "Strength of Wins/ Pain of Losses":

Overall Wins and Losses

In this last chart below you can see the overall wins and losses. As you can see the top teams are Clemson, Notre Dame, and Iowa. The bottom teams are all the winless teams. One of the most interesting teams here is Notre Dame (highlighted in green). If you take a closer look, Notre Dame has a 10-1 record, but have 0 losses in this list because their only loss came to a unbeaten Clemson team. So Notre Dame does not get credit for any losses.

 

[gkIrish]

Remember that people like Danny Kannell are not real people stating real thoughts. He is an ESPN employee making statements to increase "excitement" in the viewing public. Think Mark May in "Lou Years." Fortunately the Committee doesn't have to create public media "hits", and tries to actually evaluate football.

I sometimes believe that even as knowledgeable a board as IE begins to believe that guys like this are saying things which actually matter. Go to the rare straight up commentators like Spielman and, usually, Herbstreit if we want honest personal opinions. Mostly Robert Smith does that too, although he swings from one view to another rather rapidly. I note with curiosity that all three of those guys graduated from OSU --- how the heck did THAT happen?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My top 4 after week 12.
1-Clemson
2-Bama
3-Michigan St.
4-Oklahoma
Next 2
ND
Baylor
2 weeks to play!. <a href="https://twitter.com/CollegeGameDay">@CollegeGameDay</a></p>— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) <a href="https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit/status/668432230922850304">November 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquoteclass="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Clemson is my #1 can't wait to see these playoffs. 2. Alabama 3. Iowa ( not sure about this one- Michigan State probably ) 4. Oklahoma.</p>— robertsmith (@ESPNRobertSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNRobertSmith/status/668629375391170560">November 23, 2015</a></blockquote> <script asyncsrc="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[gkIrish]

Here's a Phil Steele ranking called "Strength of Wins/ Pain of Losses":

That's a pretty cool analysis although it would make you think we need to root for Oklahoma to beat Oklahoma St. Definitely not the case IMO.

 

[koonja]

Kirk loves the eye test. Which is the test that at some point lands Texas AM in the top 10 every year. Very reliable.

 

[Blaise]

I am really at the point of just win... Win and see where the chips lay.. I have worried too much about teams and things and doesn't make sense... Let's see where we stand tonight and after this week

 

[gkIrish]

Kirk loves the eye test. Which is the test that at some point lands Texas AM in the top 10 every year. Very reliable.

My worry is that the eye test is the ultimate determinative factor if everything else is fairly close.

I think the committee views it's job as picking the four teams that are the most capable of beating 2 of the others.

So you have Notre Dame, who played Clemson tough earlier this year and has not looked very good recently against inferior opponents. Does the committee view our loss to Clemson as evidence that we are capable of beating a playoff team or as evidence that we are no longer capable based on recent play?

Then you have Oklahoma. They have a bad loss to a team ND beat. But they have played better football recently and will have 2 of the best 3 wins. Does the committee discount the Texas loss because they are more concerned with how good a team can be playing at its best? Will Notre Dame's injuries convince the committee that Oklahoma has a better chance to win 2 playoff games?

This is why I think the games this weekend may ultimately be the deciding factor. The committee wants to know how each team might perform in the playoffs. The last thing they want is to put a team in the playoffs that gets blown out by Bama.

All that is a long way of saying if both ND and Oklahoma win, but one looks much more impressive than the other, I think that team gets in.

 

[ThePiombino]

That's a pretty cool analysis although it would make you think we need to root for Oklahoma to beat Oklahoma St. Definitely not the case IMO.

It IS the case, thought. To me, it's as simple as the devil you know...

If OU wins, we at least have a win over their one loss. If OSU wins, all bets are off because A) they beat MIGHTY OU and B) we have no victories over common opponents (though we do have a better win over a common oponent). So literally EVERYTHING will be subjective, whereas there is a semblance of objectivity in ND vs OU for potential final spot.

EDIT: meant to say no victories over OSU's only loss

 

[T Town Tommy]

Kirk loves the eye test. Which is the test that at some point lands Texas AM in the top 10 every year. Very reliable.

But A&M doesn't pass the eye test... at any point. I like to call it the "Sumlin/Texas" effect. Pay your coach a lot of money, big donors throwing cash into a program, it's in Texas so they have a "right' to be good, recruiting hotbed, big stadium, pretty girls, yada,yada.

But somewhere somebody forgot to tell them that Sumlin is slightly above average at best. And that's the Aggie program. Slightly above average at best. I give him a pass for bringing in "third and Chavis." That was a good hire... he just doesn't have the players on defense yet.

 

[Irish Insanity]

My top 4 after week 12.
1-Clemson
2-Bama
3-Michigan St.
4-Oklahoma
Next 2
ND
Baylor
2 weeks to play!. @CollegeGameDay— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) November 22, 2015

Clemson is my #1 can't wait to see these playoffs. 2. Alabama 3. Iowa ( not sure about this one- Michigan State probably ) 4. Oklahoma.— robertsmith (@ESPNRobertSmith) November 23, 2015

Kirk loves the eye test. Which is the test that at some point lands Texas AM in the top 10 every year. Very reliable.

Is that a shot at ND, OU, and Baylor by Kirk at the end. 2 weeks left knowing yor 4-6 only have 1 game left.

 

[ndcoltsfan2010]

I am really at the point of just win... Win and see where the chips lay.. I have worried too much about teams and things and doesn't make sense... Let's see where we stand tonight and after this week

I'm here too. We can talk all we want, but in the end, it doesn't really matter. Just win!!!!

 

[T Town Tommy]

All that is a long way of saying if both ND and Oklahoma win, but one looks much more impressive than the other, I think that team gets in.

I think that's exactly where the committee is at. If both ND and OU win out, who is more impressive looking in doing it? Of course that's all dependent on Clemson, Bama, and Mich St/Iowa winning out as well. One slot left. Gotta think the former coaches in the room will be saying if you line ND and OU up at this point today, who wins? Is it right? Is it wrong? Don't know. But if I were an Irish fan I would be wanting a two score victory and some dominant play against Stanford to increase my argument.

 

[Old Man Mike]

...a person here seems to like to take shots at my posts --- so be it. There seems to be some odd misreading of the post [deliberately?].

I stand behind the statement that both Herbstreit and Smith have in recent weeks both praised Notre Dame rather highly, showed awareness of what's actually good about our team, and placed us in the top 4. That they did not do that yesterday or the day before does not denigrate the fact that they seem to be giving thoughtful personal views on these things and not whoring ESPN narratives.

The statement was that Herbstreit and Smith are thoughtful about their views, and therefore will probably give Notre Dame credit when they honestly think that it's due. Their view of Oklahoma right now is based upon two things, about which they speak reasonably: that Oklahoma plays at least a little defense, and that Baker Mayfield is looking better and better as the season goes on. That does not sound like hating on Notre Dame.

 

[Irish Insanity]

There's room for both OU and ND to get in. MSU will lose this week and UofM will beat Iowa in the B1G championship leaving a 2 loss team the champ.

 

[gkIrish]

...a person here seems to like to take shots at my posts --- so be it. There seems to be some odd misreading of the post [deliberately?].

I stand behind the statement that both Herbstreit and Smith have in recent weeks both praised Notre Dame rather highly, showed awareness of what's actually good about our team, and placed us in the top 4. That they did not do that yesterday or the day before does not denigrate the fact that they seem to be giving thoughtful personal views on these things and not whoring ESPN narratives.

The statement was that Herbstreit and Smith are thoughtful about their views, and therefore will probably give Notre Dame credit when they honestly think that it's due. Their view of Oklahoma right now is based upon two things, about which they speak reasonably: that Oklahoma plays at least a little defense, and that Baker Mayfield is looking better and better as the season goes on. That does not sound like hating on Notre Dame.

OMM you have been taking shots at me for weeks without specifically naming me and I've said nothing. I quoted your post and responded to it in an obvious manner. You in turn refuse to specifically name me again and just call me "a person here" for like the 6th time in the last 3 weeks and take a shot at me. You clearly don't respect me anymore because I started a thread to debate Brian Kelly's performance. That's fine, even though you seem to be the only person who can't get over it. You can ignore my posts. But stop the passive aggressiveness, please.

As for the substance of your post, you argued that Danny Kannell is a talking head and we shouldn't care what he says. Then you named 3 other guys whose opinion you generally trust. So I provided two of their opinions to the board (could not find Spielman's picks).

 

[irish4ever]

There's room for both OU and ND to get in. MSU will lose this week and UofM will beat Iowa in the B1G championship leaving a 2 loss team the champ.

Hahaha ... at home to a mediocre 7-4 Penn State team who is 0-3 on the road?!? I can't buy that one. There's a better chance of Iowa losing on the road to Nebraska this w/e and then IF they could upset MSU in the B1G championship. Nebraska needs a win to become bowl eligible, so it's possible for them to slip one by the Hawkeyes.

 

[gkIrish]

Bold prediction:

2 of the top 7 teams will lose this week. So basically 2 of Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Iowa, MSU and Baylor

 

[Irish#1]

Bold prediction:

2 of the top 7 teams will lose this week. So basically 2 of Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Iowa, MSU and Baylor

If Sparty loses that would be huge. Then OSU gets their head out of their asses and beats Iowa in the CG, I think the B1G gets left out.

 

[Irish Insanity]

Hahaha ... at home to a mediocre 7-4 Penn State team who is 0-3 on the road?!? I can't buy that one. There's a better chance of Iowa losing on the road to Nebraska this w/e and then IF they could upset MSU in the B1G championship. Nebraska needs a win to become bowl eligible, so it's possible for them to slip one by the Hawkeyes.

Don't crush my dreams. One can wish.

Bold prediction:

2 of the top 7 teams will lose this week. So basically 2 of Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Iowa, MSU and Baylor

Not so bold. It'll happen.

 

[rocket66]

Interesting thought..does the team perform better if they slide to #5 this week? I wonder how much more motivation that could spark..


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[Legacy]

College Football Playoff 2015: Does Michigan State deserve a spot in First Four poll? | NJ.com

I'd put ND at #3 and Iowa #4. I don't want to add conference bias to the Committee's criteria.

Neither ND nor Iowa have last minute (or fluky) wins/losses except ours to Clemson. What if Michigan State had not had lost in the last seconds to Nebraska? What if they did and had not won the Michigan game on the last play?

What if Oklahoma had not lost to Texas? What if they did and TCU makes the two pointer?

And if the Michigan punter had just fallen on the ball and Michigan had won?

ND and Iowa have separated themselves by their season-long performances that have avoided those questions, though they may not have been consistent or played with equal SOSs - for this week. Next week? We'll see.

The what if questions for the two teams are:
What if Notre Dame had not lost to Clemson in the last seconds in a hurricane after surrendering points due to turnovers?
What if Iowa had not made a 57 yard FG in the final seconds to beat Pitt?

 

[gkIrish]

College Football Playoff 2015: Does Michigan State deserve a spot in First Four poll? | NJ.com

I'd put ND at #3 and Iowa #4. I don't want to add conference bias to the Committee's criteria.

Neither ND nor Iowa have last minute (or fluky) wins/losses except ours to Clemson. What if Michigan State had not had lost in the last seconds to Nebraska? What if they did and had not won the Michigan game on the last play?

What if Oklahoma had not lost to Texas? What if TCU makes the two pointer?

And if the Michigan punter had just fallen on the ball and Michigan had won?

Huh? Virginia? Temple?

 

[irish4ever]

Huh? Virginia? Temple?

What are you talking about ... the Irish owned these 2 teams! LOL