WVU is the most disrespected team in College Football
It's hard for me to not get angry about the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
For starters, I am a die hard West Virginia Mountaineer fan and they are the team that's arguably been screwed the hardest.
There are seven Power 5 teams with either zero or one loss. Those teams are ranked 1,2,3,4,5,6 and....... 14th. That is where the Mountaineers were generously ranked this week, with a big matchup against Oklahoma looming this weekend.
While the ranking pisses me off, I like to think I am a rationale person so I try to understand the committee's point of view. The committee's big point is that WVU has not had a marquee victory yet this season.
With that being their point, I wanted to look at a few teams ranked ahead of WVU and examine their marquee victories.
One of the teams ahead is Colorado, who currently sits at 8-2 in the PAC 12 with losses to Michigan and USC, who is suddenly 13th. I'll get back to that one though.
Colorado is a great story, they've been terrible for years and are finally winning games and deserving of a top 25 ranking. But they are not a top 10 football team. Their best win is 10-5 over Stanford (7-3). While that is a good win, it is not a great win.
Staying in the PAC 12, USC is one slot above WVU with three losses. Those losses came at the hand of Alabama, Stanford and Utah (ranked 12th). While those are three losses against ranked teams, there is no reason for a 3 loss team from the PAC 12 to be ranked above a 1 loss team from the BIG 12. It doesn't even make sense.
The only reason USC is ranked highly is because of a win over Washington, who hasn't played a soul either. Washington's best win? Over the overrated Utes in Utah. Utah also lost to Cal, but that doesn't matter anymore. The committee is setting the precedent that having a bad loss is acceptable as long as you can counter it with a good win.
Committee chairman Kirby Hocutt explained that WVU's low ranking was due to not beating yet. He was then asked about Oklahoma, who has the exact same resumè almost. The Sooners have played one team currently ranked in the CFP top 25, and lost. On top of that, they have also lost to an unranked Houston team.
WVU has only one loss, and it is to the 12th Oklahoma State Cowboys. OSU has lost to two unranked teams as well, but I can at least understand the committee placing them ahead of WVU due to the head to head. However, if that is how the committee wants to operate, Penn State should be ranked ahead of Ohio State.
They are slotted 5 spots ahead of WVU at 9th. The committee values OU's recent win streak, and forgives them for their early losses. They do not care about overall body of work in this scenario, and within that lies the main issue with the Playoff committee: they have absolutely zero consistency.
I could go further down the line and talk about the BIG 10 bias, and compare more resumès but there's not enough time in the day. If WVU takes care of Oklahoma this weekend in Morgantown, they can no longer ignore the Mountaineers. They will be forced to appreciate their overall body of work, and place them higher in their "prestigious" rankings.
