First of all, let me start off by saying I fucking love college football. I can watch 18-22 year old men run up and down the field all day (please tell me how gay you think that is in the comments). And I am more than blessed to have been able to enjoy the greatness of the Rose Bowl for every UCLA home game this season. But to sit here and pretend like I am satisfied with the way we rank our college football teams in this country is something I cannot do.
The root of my frustration with the system in place finally offered up a poignant example this season, just in time for my newfound fandom with the UCLA Bruins to be ripped out from under me by the bloodthirsty devils that rank our nation's college football teams. The story starts in the beginning of September:
As I sat at home for the month of September, awaiting the inevitable start of my college career, I had plenty of time to analyze, read, and hypothesize every aspect of the college football landscape. After 2 weeks of UCLA wins, I began to realize that there was a chance that I could attend my first college football game as a student and root for a ranked team simultaneously. UCLA's week two win over then 16th ranked Nebraska had vaulted them into the top 25, and only a loss to lowly Houston would have prevented my dream scenario. At the same time, in fact on the same Saturday that UCLA beat Nebraska, the Oregon State Beavers took down the 13th ranked Wisconsin Badgers. However, due to the hurricanes in the Gulf at this time, the Beavers' had only played one game that season, and the win against the Badgers wasn't enough to push them into the top 25. Thus, when #19 UCLA hosted the unranked Badgers two weeks later, on my first day of college, and the Bruins lost, they dropped to the likes of the unranked, and the Badgers became one of the top 25.
Jump forward to today, and the Badgers are the 7th ranked team in the country, while the Bruins, who only have lost one game since losing to the Badgers, and own a respectable 5-2 record, remain unranked.
Now I think there's a fucking problem somewhere in there. The Badgers being ranked 7th today means that these writers believe that they are, and have been, the 7th best team in the country this season, which may be true, but because they were unranked when they beat the Bruins, it looks like a bad loss for UCLA. On the other hand, if UCLA had been beat by the #7 team in the country in week 5, they would have probably just barely dropped out of the top 25, and would still be vying for a spot.
And although I have an obvious bias in this situation, this happens every week. I do agree that there must be a system for ranking the teams, or else (given a best-record situation), we would have teams like Mississippi St. with as much of a case for the National Title as Alabama, but the system in place is inherently flawed. The system implies that the teams are ordered based on how good they are, but changing them every week implies that the writers were wrong the previous week. Maybe I'll come up with a new system eventually, but for now, I'd just like to give a big fuck you to the writers who decide this shit; up your game.
The root of my frustration with the system in place finally offered up a poignant example this season, just in time for my newfound fandom with the UCLA Bruins to be ripped out from under me by the bloodthirsty devils that rank our nation's college football teams. The story starts in the beginning of September:
As I sat at home for the month of September, awaiting the inevitable start of my college career, I had plenty of time to analyze, read, and hypothesize every aspect of the college football landscape. After 2 weeks of UCLA wins, I began to realize that there was a chance that I could attend my first college football game as a student and root for a ranked team simultaneously. UCLA's week two win over then 16th ranked Nebraska had vaulted them into the top 25, and only a loss to lowly Houston would have prevented my dream scenario. At the same time, in fact on the same Saturday that UCLA beat Nebraska, the Oregon State Beavers took down the 13th ranked Wisconsin Badgers. However, due to the hurricanes in the Gulf at this time, the Beavers' had only played one game that season, and the win against the Badgers wasn't enough to push them into the top 25. Thus, when #19 UCLA hosted the unranked Badgers two weeks later, on my first day of college, and the Bruins lost, they dropped to the likes of the unranked, and the Badgers became one of the top 25.
Jump forward to today, and the Badgers are the 7th ranked team in the country, while the Bruins, who only have lost one game since losing to the Badgers, and own a respectable 5-2 record, remain unranked.
Now I think there's a fucking problem somewhere in there. The Badgers being ranked 7th today means that these writers believe that they are, and have been, the 7th best team in the country this season, which may be true, but because they were unranked when they beat the Bruins, it looks like a bad loss for UCLA. On the other hand, if UCLA had been beat by the #7 team in the country in week 5, they would have probably just barely dropped out of the top 25, and would still be vying for a spot.
And although I have an obvious bias in this situation, this happens every week. I do agree that there must be a system for ranking the teams, or else (given a best-record situation), we would have teams like Mississippi St. with as much of a case for the National Title as Alabama, but the system in place is inherently flawed. The system implies that the teams are ordered based on how good they are, but changing them every week implies that the writers were wrong the previous week. Maybe I'll come up with a new system eventually, but for now, I'd just like to give a big fuck you to the writers who decide this shit; up your game.
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