College Football Playoffs

Here we are in late November, only a couple weeks away from Conference Championship weekend and it has become painfully obvious that things haven't really changed for college football. We finally started the playoff era, yet it seems like a lot of people are still dissatisfied with the new system. You can count me as one of those people. My main problem with the committee is that they are allowing public opinion to factor into their rankings instead of looking at what's really going on. Also, they don't seem to be applying the same criteria to each team. They have allowed style points to creep into the rankings and in some cases trump wins and losses. I get it, sometimes wins look ugly and losses look good. That's fine; all we ask is that if they want to do it that way, please be consistent.

SEC

You can't drop FSU in the rankings for beating a pretty good Miami team by only 4 points when the former number 1, Mississippi State, was within a touchdown of Arkansas two weeks prior and didn't move anywhere. Which begs the question, why does the committee think the SEC is still the dominant conference in the land? That distinction clearly belongs to the Pac-12, and it's not even close at this point. I don't understand how a 1-loss Alabama team leapfrogs an undefeated FSU and 1-loss Oregon team. Because they beat the all powerful Mississippi State? Florida, Illinois, Virginia, Indiana, Washington St...sorry, I was just naming a few teams with as many wins against top-25 opponents as Mississippi State. This is the problem with how the SEC schedules games, typically having a schedule with LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn would be a daunting task. This year, however, Auburn is the only good team in that group and they're currently in a bit of a skid. This leaves the rest of the country without a way to gauge how these teams would perform against teams from other conferences, therefore, inflating the value of some conference wins that really weren't all that impressive. 

FSU

So for all you SEC fans out there that like to criticize other teams SOS, think twice before you bring up the quality of teams FSU has played this year. That being said, is anyone really confident in FSU after watching how they've performed this season? Don't get me wrong, 27 straight wins is nothing to scoff at, but they do not look like that dominant team that they were last year. Consequentially, the committee has docked them a few points and dropped them in the rankings a bit. Truthfully, I think this is more a testament to how good they were last year, rather than how poor they've looked this year. The whole country expected them to be this unstoppable juggernaut that would plow through inferior opponents and cruise to the playoffs. Well, here we are waiting for that team and week after week they simply scrape by unranked opponents. At this point, it's time to give up that dream and look at them for what they really are. A good team that finds a way to win every week; something that no other Power 5 conference team can claim. The good news is, if they keep winning there is no way they will be kept out of the playoffs. Which means we either see them lose to a lesser team and everyone will claim to be the guy that predicted their fall from grace, or they continue to win and we all get to see how they perform in the playoff against good opponents. Honestly, I kind of hope they lose to the Gators next week. Partly due to the fact that I'm 100% biased towards the Gators, but also so the FSU fans will shut up about their crazy paranoia that everyone is out to get them (which I guess is also due to the fact that I'm 100% biased towards the Gators). Seriously though, that's what the media does, they look for dirt and make a huge issue out of it. That's what generates clicks nowadays. At some point you have to look at the situation and consider that if Jameis wasn't always getting caught doing idiotic things, the media wouldn't have anything to cover. 

Oregon

The good news is all of these extra stories aren't going to affect Winston's chance to take home the Heisman. He took care of that with his play on the field. I believe it's Marcus Mariota's trophy to lose. Really though, this kid has been playing out of his mind all season, he just seems to always make the right decision. In fact, if the committee were truly going off style points and "game control" then Oregon is the far away clear choice for #1. With impressive wins over 4 current top-25 teams, in my opinion, they have the strongest résumé in the country. I know what you're thinking. Yes, this is still Oregon and, yes, every time we think they have finally put it all together they end up losing to some terrible team and send their whole season down the drain. That's where this season is different! They've already tried to throw it all away with their loss to Arizona. Little did they know, Arizona is good this year! So, despite their best efforts we will more than likely get to see a dangerous Oregon team in the playoff. Unless they lose to Oregon state, then forget everything I just said. 

TCU vs. Baylor

Finally, this whole TCU vs. Baylor thing that is going on... The committee has been told to take conference champions into account when making their decisions, so I don't see how it's conceivably possible that the Big 12 wants to name Baylor and TCU co-champions. They have the same record, but Baylor beat TCU, therefore, Baylor is the champion. It's not that complicated. Hopefully, one of them loses in the next couple weeks so we don't even have to worry about the controversy that arises when one team gets in over the other.

Which leads me to naming my preferred playoff teams: Oregon, FSU, Alabama, and Baylor. I think these 4 teams most deserve the chance to play in the big game. However, as we have all seen this committee is illogical and unpredictable so the most deserving teams won't always be the ones who get in. With that in mind, I'd like to send my early congratulations to the Florida Gators, who by beating the #3 ranked Seminoles next week, saved the world and find themselves in the top 4, where they eventually go on to win the national championship!

What? It could happen.

The Washington Football Club

Let's face it, the Washington Redskins' carousel of QBs is a joke. RGIII cost them about 5,000 draft picks (you might want to check my numbers on that) and has looked terrible since his sophomore season. You have Kirk Cousins who looks like Joe Montana one week and Mark Sanchez, the Jets version, the next. And finally, Colt McCoy, a career backup whose most memorable moment in the NFL is getting destroyed by James Harrison. 

Now, as for RGIII, remember when he was the guy? Yeah, not many people do. He was extremely hyped after his first season and then he suffered that terrible injury in the playoffs which has thrown his career off track. I decided to go and look back over that first season and realized all the hype was over some generally mediocre production. I know, I know...in no way is a 20:5 TD/interception ratio mediocre. However, when you count his 12 fumbles, he had a total of 17 turnovers on the season. Considering one of the biggest reasons people picked him as the ROY over Luck was that he only threw 5 interceptions, it was a surprise that the turnover difference wasn't all that large. Also, it's interesting to note 8 of those 20 touchdowns came in two games, and Matt Flynn has proven even terrible QBs can have big games. Now all of this isn't to say that RGIII was a terrible quarterback that first year. He was a rookie adjusting to the speed of the NFL so mistakes were made, but a majority of the time he was quite exciting to watch. At the same time, in no way was he as phenomenal as people made him out to be. 

The point I am trying to make here is that RGIII hasn't really looked the part of quarterback of the future in Washington. However, if I were them I would let this season play out with him as my QB. This would allow them to gather a larger sample size in the new scheme to really see what he can do. What else are they gonna do, let Colt McCoy play? Wait, that's exactly what the fans want. That's ridiculous. I get that he came off the bench and beat Tennessee and then went into Dallas and beat them but, really, Colt McCoy? If you say that RGIII has looked terrible in the past then you don't want to see what this guy did in Cleveland. If anything I would be upset that Colt won those two games and ruined the chance of getting a higher draft pick. Anyways, haven't they been down this road before with a different backup QB? Remember week 3 when Kirk Cousins was the better QB for Jay Gruden's offensive system? We thought RGIII might not even get the chance to win the starting spot back and then by week 4, everyone was asking where Robert Griffin was. It just feels like we will see the same thing happen with Colt. 

I have never understood why fans think that career backups can come in and consistently perform like a starter. If the guy had the talent to make it as a starter then someone somewhere probably would have seen it. Look at Josh McCown, everyone has known for years he is simply a backup caliber quarterback and that was fine, it worked. Then he had to go and perform well in Chicago for a stretch of games and suddenly everyone thinks that Tampa Bay won't be that bad this year because they finally have a decent quarterback. It's funny how these things turn out. The career backup is playing like a career backup? I know, shocking. People need to stop with the whole idea that they pay for tickets so they should get to decide who plays, blah, blah blah. Last I checked, most fans are not trained NFL talent scouts, therefore they should probably leave the personnel decisions to the professionals...

Which leads me to my point, if the fans weren't calling for RGIII's head, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Plain and simple, no matter how frustrating it is, you don't give away your entire future in draft picks for a guy just to bench him two games after coming off an injury; it just doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, the NFL is a "what have you done for me recently" league so for now Colt McCoy is the golden boy and RGIII is the ugly red-headed step sister. 

Just remember Redskins fans, be careful what you wish for.