As conference play steps up in college football, the interest in the post-season playoffs will pick up as well. The selection process that will determine the four teams who will be selected to go for the title will face intensified scrutiny.
The protocol for that process includes polling numbers. The selection committee understands the shortcomings involved with polls.
“Ranking football teams is an art, not a science,” are the very first words of the College Football Playoff home page. The committee established a selection protocol that includes polls, but also other factors.
But the polls are vitally important. Is there an SEC bias significant enough to harm the chances of deserving teams? Is the ACC relatively on par with the SEC and deserving of more respect?
Let’s answer the last question first. As far as top-to-bottom quality of teams, the SEC is the strongest among the ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac 12.
Their top eight are superior to the top eight of any other conference. However, ranking 10 of them in the top 25, as pollsters did earlier this season, is ridiculous.
Things are much more competitive at the very top, which is the altitude where championship contenders are selected. Among the ACC’s best teams, they compare more than favorably with the SEC.
The Alabama brand really took off after their 42-14 thrashing of Notre Dame in the BCS Championship Game in January of 2013. It was their second consecutive title and third in four years.
During that same bowl season, the SEC went 7-1, with their only loss coming to the ACC’s Clemson in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Vanderbilt beat North Carolina State in the hometown Music City Bowl in the only other ACC/SEC matchup.
The Tide’s victory gave the league a 1-0 mark in the five major post-season games consisting of the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowl in addition to the championship game. The SEC has not won a major bowl since.
The same 2012-13 bowl season saw the ACC go 4-1. Florida State’s win over Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl gave the conference a 1-0 mark in the five major games.
In 2013-14, the SEC had another strong bowl season from top-to-bottom. They went 7-2 overall, including two wins over ACC teams, but were 0-2 in the major games.
The two losses were by Alabama to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and Florida State’s win over Auburn in the final National Championship Game under the Bowl Championship Series format. With Clemson’s 40-35 win over Ohio State in the Orange Bowl, the ACC was 2-0 in major bowls.
Last season, the SEC was 6-4 overall in bowls, and 0-2 in the big 5. Alabama was taken down by Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, while the ACC’s Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets handled Mississippi State, 49-34, in the Orange Bowl.
The ACC was only 4-4 overall and 1-1 in big 5 games after FSU’s smack down by Oregon in the Rose Bowl. The Seminoles’ loss was the first by an ACC team since the 2012 Sugar Bowl loss by Virginia Tech.
As the season progresses and the championship picture becomes clearer, the hope here is poll voters will be rational. Their double-digit vaulting of Mississippi over quality, winning teams from one game should not repeat itself. Fellow SEC member Georgia must still be scratching their heads.
In the opinion of this Big 10 grad, the SEC is an outstanding football conference (three national titles by the Gators), but the top teams in other leagues, especially the ACC, have shown they can beat the big boys when it counts. That should not be forgotten.
