It’s way too early.
With four more games remaining, including Stanford around the corner and No. 18 Utah on the road in the following week, Oregon’s remaining schedule is no cake walk. Sure, the Ducks are expected to win out the season. Heck, they were supposed to win every game they had on their schedule and look what happened. But it’s not just the Ducks, every team’s season across the country is way too early to judge.
Oregon was ranked No. 5 on Tuesday, Oct. 28 by the College Football Playoff Committee behind No. 4 Ole Miss, No. 3 Auburn, No. 2 Florida State and No. 1 Mississippi State. But what will it be ranked next week?
Who knows where No. 1 Mississippi St. will be? They have a great argument at this point beating then ranked No. 8 LSU, No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 2 Auburn, but the Bulldogs still have No. 3 Alabama and No. 7 Ole Miss left on the schedule which will no doubt affect the SEC West team attending the SEC Championship game. So, again, who really knows?
Oregon’s offensive coordinator Scott Frost said after practice on Monday that he “could care less what the committee’s rankings are right now.”
“I trust those people,” Frost said. “There are some awfully smart people on that committee, they’ll make the right decision. To be honest I feel like it’s kind of pointless to come out with it now. So many games still have to be played, we’ve got a tough slate ahead of us. Teams ahead of us have a tough slate ahead of them. Teams behind us have tough games. People can talk about it right now but it really doesn’t matter until that last one.”
Every Tuesday until Dec. 2 the playoff committee will make their rankings a performance, as they did on Tuesday. But it won’t be until Dec. 7 when it actually matters. Yes, it makes for great ratings and excitement, but it really just makes more work for the committee as well as more speculation on what will happen. And there is no progress that can be made through speculating.
In fact what then happens is more distraction. Already college football is obsessed with who is ranked and where they stack up, and now there is just another poll. Yes it will be the important poll when it is all said and done, but for now, it’s meaningless and just another distraction from the actual play on the field.
What the committee should do is release one, all important ranking. As the NCAA does with the NCAA Basketball Tournament. One release at the end of the season provides America with everything it needs to know: Who’s in and who isn’t. It would also avoid any controversy that will no doubt occur based on the committee’s preliminary rankings.
The reason it would allow controversy is because, unlike the NCAA, the playoff committee ranks its top 25, instead of just the four playoffs spots. So when it comes down to their final decisions, it likely will be controversial because of all the changes that are no doubt ahead.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly