From: constance@duxmail.com   
      
   On 2023-12-16, JE Corbett  wrote:   
   > On Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 10:49:10 AM UTC-5, michael anderson wrote:   
   >> On Monday, December 4, 2023 at 9:58:27 AM UTC-6, JE Corbett wrote:   
   >> > The four best teams is a completely subjective and arbitrary standard.   
   There is   
   >> > no way to measure that. What I think are the four best teams probably   
   won't be   
   >> > what somebody else thinks are the four best teams. Furthermore, if you   
   were   
   >> > to really put the four best teams in the playoff, you might have to put   
   in a great   
   >> > but underachieving team (Ohio State, Georgia?). In some years that could   
   be   
   >> > a team with two or three losses. There is no way to measure the four best.   
   >> >   
   >> > What we can measure are accomplishments. By that criteria, Michigan,   
   >> > Washington, FSU, and Texas would get the nod. The first three because they   
   >> > are undefeated Power 5 conference champions and Texas would get the nod   
   >> > over Alabama because they beat them head-t0-head.   
   >> >   
   >> > The committee neither selected the four best teams nor the four most   
   >> > accomplished teams. Their choices were political. They didn't want to   
   ruffle   
   >> > feathers by leaving the SEC out. They had to take Alabama over Georgia but   
   >> > they couldn't justify putting Alabama in and leaving Texas out so they   
   took   
   >> > put them both in and gave the finger to FSU. I truly believe that if   
   Georgia   
   >> > had won the SEC, they would have selected the four unbeaten conference   
   >> > champions and left Texas out.   
   >> I completely agree with this, and it wasn't talked about enough.   
   >>   
   >> Alabama being thrown in the mix is probably what saved texas too.   
   >>   
   >> I'm someone who believes that HTH doesn't *always* have to trump everything   
   else(assuming similar number of losses). But a lot of people do, so when the   
   committee decided that they had to take alabama due to the significant of the   
   win against georgia(   
   which is a reasonable stance in my opinion.....I mean you have to reward those   
   type of wins, of which there was only 1 this year and only 1 every 3-4 years   
   probably) they also decided they had to take Texas due to the HTH(or people   
   would really lose it).    
   So FSU is the odd team out, and the travis injury was their supposed cover.....   
   >   
   > The silly thing about the HTH standard is by the end of the season,   
   > somebody has to be ranked above another team that beat them. There's   
   > no getting around it. HTH only means on one particular day, one team   
   > was better than another. Does that mean we should ignore the other   
   > 11 games? I remember the uproar back in the BCS days when Colorado   
   > rolled Nebraska in their regular season finale and beat Texas in the   
   > Big 12 Championship but Nebraska narrowly made it into the national   
   > championship game based on the BCS formula. It was because the BCS   
   > formula took into account all the games both teams played. It had no   
   > recency bias other than what existed amongst the pollsters. Colorado   
   > had lost TWO regular season games and that was their undoing. HTH is   
   > important, but it shouldn't be used as an eraser. Despite Alabama   
   > beating Georgia, I think Georgia has been the better team over the   
   > course of the season and if they four best teams had been selected,   
   > Georgia would have been one of thm.   
      
   But you have to follow pre-agreed rules of assessment if you want to   
   avoid accusations of bias. The committee did a very good job of   
   conforming to those, so there are no real complaints. Sure FSU is   
   gonna whine; they kind of have to as a matter of fan service. But I   
   have seen very little real pushback, considering. Even FSU fans are   
   coming to terms with it.   
      
   If Georgia had beaten Alabama, does anyone question that we would   
   have had four undefeated teams in the CFP? Even though it would be   
   pretty clear that FSU was not one of the best teams minus their QB?   
   But the moment you have to let a one-loss team in, 1) you can't   
   exclude Alabama because you can't exclude the SEC, and 2) you can't   
   easily exclude Texas because they beat Alabama. FSU could be excluded   
   because of their QB. I really don't know what the committee would   
   have done if they didn't have that -- they would have had to negate   
   either 1) or 2) above.   
      
   If FSU whomps Georgia, they'll have a great time with their asterisk,   
   claiming they should have been national champions. I doubt that's   
   going to happen, though.   
      
   --   
   It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams   
   because they grow old, they grow old because they   
   stop pursuing dreams. -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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