Game Thread: CFP Games on 12/21 (SMU/PSU TNT @ 11a) | (CLEM @ UTX TNT @ 3p) | (UTN @ OSU ABC @ 7p)

[BamaInBham]

I think Ohio St has been awakened. I don’t know if anyone can beat them at this point because they are finally playing like everyone envisioned them.

I think Oregon will get drug in the rematch, and we are left wondering if ND or Georgia has enough defense to keep it close.

Could be Tennessee is that bad but it feels like Ohio State found something that they were missing.

IMO, it was Howard throwing very well that made the difference, though OSU is won on both LOS.

No a Bad loss counted against tOSU as well which is why they dropped to #8

But the difference is they only had 1 bad loss by 3 points. It's bad in context to a 6-5 team but not bad on the score board in addition to that.

Their other loss is by 1 point to the #1 Team.

Bama lost 3 times and twice to bad 6-5 teams and the last one was in non competitive fashion by 3 TD's.

The 2 situations are completely different.

But the focus should not be only on the losses. If so, we could just stop at the number - SMU 2, Ala 3.

But wins do matter. Ala had one of the top two wins of the year vs the team who ended #2. They also beat 2 other ranked teams: USC & Mo. That’s 3 ranked teams to 0 for SMU, including the top win vs UGA.

IMO, few reasonable persons would deny that Alabama was the better team by the Committee’s own past practice and the frequent references to the importance of SOS which is the number 1 “principle” applied when assessing the teams to be selected. The CFPC ignored both of the wire service polls who had placed Ala one spot ahead of SMU (barely) and all of the computers of which I’m aware who had Ala ahead: Sag: 7 vs 18, WN: 8 vs 1, ESPN: by several spots. Not close in any case.

Subsequent events have only verified what was obvious to most objective observers all along. SOS, their top criterion has been ignored and future scheduling has been affected for the worse.