MGoPoll: Who Should Be #4 in the College Football Playoff?

Submitted by Mr. Yost on

It'll be a topic of discussion in all college football coverage before Tuesday...who should be #4 this week?

Really it's got to be between OSU and Washington, but I added Clemson, Louisville and Michigan just to have more options.

RGard

November 6th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^

Anthony Lubrano, one of penn state's alumni elected trustees went on a diatribe at one of their BoT meetings this past week about how they did wrong by firing Paterno and how the university needs to apologize to Paterno's family and do a proper honoring of Paterno.

As long as the alumni keep electing apologists for Paterno, Fuck penn state.

BTW...they also want Paterno's name back on the one division trophy.

corundum

November 6th, 2016 at 10:23 AM ^

Clemson has wins over Louisville, Auburn, and FSU. Washington has wins over Utah and Stanford. Washington won a 7 point nailbiter over a terrible Arizona squad and gave up over 300 yards to Rutgers. Clemson should most definitely be ranked ahead of Washington.

SeattleWolverine

November 6th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^

Clemson also played poorly against Troy. Troy's not horrible, but if you want to criticize WA for a weak win over AZ then that weaknesses in Clemson's season should factor in too, in addition to the NC State game. But whatever. Clemson has better wins with Louisville and @Auburn. Not sure I give them all that much credit for beating FSU given how FSU has played but still.  

 

SeattleWolverine

November 6th, 2016 at 12:05 PM ^

Yeah, they're good for a Sun Belt team, hence their record. But their wins are Austin Peay, Southern Miss, New Mexico State, Idaho, Georgia State, South Alabama and UMass. 

 

In the big picture, Troy should be a team that gets stomped by a CFP team. And Clemson should still be embarrassed about that game, even if it had been a 13 point win. One data point in a long season, but not a favorable one. 

 

Crentski

November 6th, 2016 at 2:44 PM ^

It was closer than the score indicated.  If I recall correctly, Troy stripped a Clemson player at the 1 and returned it 99 yards for a TD.  This was removed because an official "blew the play dead," when no whistle was blown until the defender was 30 yards down the field.  Clemson scored on the next play.  A massive 14 point swing in the 4th quarter that ultimately was responsible for the outcome, imo.  

SeattleWolverine

November 6th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^

Pretty sure if you chill a little and read the comments in the thread you'll see where I acknowledged Clemson has the better overall resume. I'd have Clemson 3, UW 4. Just saying it was their performance against NC State was indeed a crap game. And your post on Clemson's OT win being better because it was in regulation was a rationale based on incorrect facts.  

No axe at all to grind. I live in Seattle, and so I see a lot of UW, but I'm fairly ambivalent about them. Michigan is my alma mater and the team I actually care about, but thanks.

Aside from that even, Washington is clearly either going to win out and be in the playoff, or lose a game and lose out in a beauty pageant to another 1 loss team, probably Louisville. That's the way these polls work, and why losing in November is worse than losing in Sept/Oct. 

ESNY

November 6th, 2016 at 1:18 PM ^

Louisville should be behind OSU and maybe even Wisconsin. They have one good win and a whole lot of nothing else. OSU has a much stronger set of wins and their one loss is similar. Wisconsin has much better wins but one more loss against a top team.




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ggoodness56

November 6th, 2016 at 9:19 AM ^

After watching Washington three times this season, I think Ohio could manhandle them up front. My four are:

 

1-Bama

2-Michigan

3-Clemson

4-Ohio State

__________________________________

 

5-Lousville

6-Washington

7-Wisconsin

bacon

November 6th, 2016 at 10:28 AM ^

Washington has an unbelievably soft schedule. Actually, The only way they could have played a weaker schedule was if they played UCLA instead of Utah/USC. Then they would have the easiest schedule possible in the pac12. They haven't played Washington state or USC yet. They don't play Colorado. They beat Cal, Oregon, and Oregon state who all have losing records. Stanford is awful, but they beat them. Utah is third in the pac12 south and that's their signature 31-24 win.

In their out of conference schedule, the best team they played was Rutgers. I guess you could argue that Idaho is better than Rutgers, but that's no better and the other team they played was Portland State in the FCS.

How anyone could be considering them for the playoff is beyond me.

SeattleWolverine

November 6th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^

Definitely some schedule weakness for UW. But they'll play USC, @Washington St, and vs either Colorado/Utah/USC in the PAC 12 championship. Wouldn't be surprised if they lost but if they win they definitely boost their resume. Not sure their OL will hold up against some of these  teams but we shall see.

@Utah is a good win. Thought we learned that last year. 

You can definitiely make an argument for Louisville or OSU above them. Saying they shouldn't even be considered as one of what, 4 undefeated Power 5 teams in November for a 4 team playoff is pretty dumb frankly. 

bacon

November 6th, 2016 at 2:29 PM ^

My point is that as a pac12 team, they couldn't have a weaker schedule at this point (except if they played UCLA instead of USC). The pac12 is really unimpressive this year. I'm not convinced Washington beating unranked USC, Arizona State (1-4 in the pac12), and #25 Washington State, will mean something because those teams are not good. That said, if they beat Colorado in the championship game, then they'll probably get the chance to be this years MSU and get smoked by Alabama in the playoffs. I'll bet Bama would rather have Washington over OSU or Louisville at #4 as well.

Edit: I think my position here is too dogmatic. You're right that Washington deserves the nod if they go undefeated in the pac12. USC is a better team than I think I'm giving them credit for and Utah is probably a good team as well. I still maintain that the PAC12 isn't as good as their 8-6 out of conference record vs power 5 + independent teams would lead you to believe because the wins were against Virginia, Rutgers, ttu, k state, ND, and BYU (2-1). Those teams are 24-30.

lilpenny1316

November 6th, 2016 at 12:44 PM ^

It's not as if they're squeaking by like Colorado has.  Beating Oregon by 49 at Oregon is still impressive.  If the go through the Pac-12 undefeated, they would have deserved the #4 spot.  I don't think they will, so this will probably be a moot point.

M-Dog

November 6th, 2016 at 1:38 PM ^

They have enough strength of schedule coming up - USC, Wash State, Pac12 title game - that they will get in if they win the Pac12 . . . even with one loss.  

The committee will put in a one-loss P5 champion over any one-loss non-P5 champion that is not Alabama (yes that includes a one-loss non-Big Ten champion Michigan).