The First College Football Playoff Rankings Screwed Over A Bunch Of Teams, But Nobody Got Fucked More Than The Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Listen, we can bicker about Alabama being a Top 5 team all we want. And yes, it's batshit crazy how the CFP committee ranked the Tide that high. There's a joke to be made about high tide right there, but this is no time for funny business.
There's a much more alarming component to this first CFP poll that I don't think is getting anywhere NEAR as much attention as it should. And I will fight for the little guy here because I'm really pissed off by this.
Why the fuck is Wake Forest ranked all the way down at #16? That's just absurd.
Wake Forest is 7-1 this season, with their only loss coming against the #1 team in the nation according to the committee -- the Miami Hurricanes. It was the first conference game of the year for the Deacons, but they've been on absolute tear ever since.
Even El Presidente knows that this Wake Forest team should be Top 10 in the nation!
They beat Louisville ON THE ROAD when the Cardinals were the #16 team in the country. Of course, Louisville has fallen off a bit since then, but they're still being used to prop up Ole Miss's resume. Ole Miss beat Louisville by 3 earlier this season, just like Wake Forest beat Louisville by 3. That's a quality win for Wake.
Wake then went on to win their next four games by an average margin of 39 points. They haven't played a whole lot of real competition since, but they're pasting teams in a way that we aren't seeing much of elsewhere. I'm talking scores of 57-3 or 51-7. They're absolutely boatracing people.
And these are against conference teams! I know the ACC is nowhere near as strong as the SEC or the Big Ten, but they're doing exactly what they should be doing against weaker opponents: Beating the ever-living shit out of them.
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Meanwhile, you have teams in the Top 10 with two losses who have gotten their doors blown off at one point or another. But because they're in the SEC, naturally they have to be better than lowly Wake Forest. Give me a break. The games (and the losses, specifically) have to matter. And Wake Forest is hot right now.
They have two games in the home stretch of their season that'll be massive. SMU is 6-2 right now, and the Deacons will be going on the road to face them in a couple weeks. Duke is also 6-2, and they're set to be Wake's final opponent in Week 13.
And that's probably the easiest excuse that the committee can make if they put out a bad set of rankings: "Oh, well we still have so much season left to settle things, and the teams will all sort themselves out on the field."
However, the fact that Wake is already outside of the Playoff picture creates a situation where they have very little margin for error. They're fighting an uphill battle the rest of the way, and it'll be really tough for them to get the benefit of the doubt if they lose another game. The committee's already showing you that they're willing to give that benefit of the doubt to the big bad SEC teams, though, and that's extremely concerning.
If you're a Deacon reading this right now, just know that I feel for you guys today. This is total and utter bullshit.