Ballot Type: Human
Submitted: Jan. 11, 2023, 9:24 p.m.
Overall Rationale: I think there's definitely a case for renumbering #2 through 4 - I was very tempted to put Ohio State at 2, in fact. They were one play away from also (possibly) boatracing TCU. ...but maybe they wouldn't have blown out TCU? Maybe Ohio State was the matchup nightmare every Georgia fan thought they would be, and that they played an A+ game with phenomenal efforts by Stroud and Harrison. But maybe TCU also deserved to be in the championship? Alright, enough with the soft language. I'll tell you flat out that TCU belonged in the championship. Anyone who says otherwise is a bozo. They beat the (formerly) undefeated (also formerly) #2 team in the country. Hell, a significant number of people felt that Michigan should have been #1 since Georgia had some glaring weaknesses. Ultimately, I think that these end of season rankings should reflect the season these teams had, rather than how they went out in their final game (though that final performance has a great impact on rankings). Here's a thought that's applicable to every sport, and will more than likely hold true when the CFP expands. The champion, the #1 team, those bois, they are not always the *best* team. Isn't that what makes Cinderella champions, the underdog upsets, so fantastic? The fact that they're not the *best* team on paper or in simulations, and that in 100 alternate universe they lose the game 99 times. But sports are wack, yo. The chaos, the yoinky sploinky bullshit bouncehouse shit, that's what makes all shapes of sportsball so fun. These games have so much random shit feeding into them that the difference between eating your 53rd breakfast cornflake or deciding "y'know what, Ray Lewis is my guy and he wouldn't want me going past #52" can be the difference between euphoric glory to rein in the new year and awaking in cold sweats on top of pee-pee soaked bedsheets, wondering what went wrong. All that is to say, I think Ohio State finished the *better* team out of TCU, Michigan, and Ohio State. But TCU earned their championship appearance and Michigan had a helluva season too. I can't move Ohio State up 2 spots just because they had quite possibly the most qualitiest of losses. We have to think ahead. When an 8-5 team inevitably upsets the undefeated #1 team in the 12 team playoff format, we gotta throw that 9-5 team ahead in the rankings, even though they may not be the *better* team in a majority of their matchups. "That's pretty cheap to ignore the one game, the only evidence we actually have, r/Extra_Excrement! Surely the 9-5 team is actually better than the now 12-1 team. If they weren't better, they wouldn't have won! The best team always wins! You can't rely on alternate universe bullshit to get out of this one". I do declare that the other universes are not to be ignored. If there are universes where I don't waste my precious sleep time incoherently rambling to the void because my brain just no longer loves to play the Happy Days record but backways on loop, then that gives me confidence to say there is also a universe where Texas is back. Great season to all! The TCU Horned Frogs, the Ohio State Bucknutters, the New Orleans Septic Wave that gave the entire USC team sepsis (also how does The Grinch still have a job?). The rest of my rankings are fairly straightforward. Just moved teams up/down based on where I had them before and whether they won or lost. Eyeballed it. Boo me, I know. I think this write-up proves I am no robot
Teams Ranked:
Rank | Team | Unusualness |
---|---|---|
1 | Georgia Bulldogs | 0.00 |
2 | TCU Horned Frogs | 0.00 |
3 | Michigan Wolverines | 0.00 |
4 | Ohio State Buckeyes | 0.00 |
5 | Tennessee Volunteers | 0.00 |
6 | Alabama Crimson Tide | 0.00 |
7 | Penn State Nittany Lions | 0.00 |
8 | Washington Huskies | 0.00 |
9 | Tulane Green Wave | 0.00 |
10 | Utah Utes | 0.00 |
11 | Florida State Seminoles | 0.00 |
12 | Oregon State Beavers | 0.62 |
13 | Oregon Ducks | 0.00 |
14 | Kansas State Wildcats | 0.00 |
15 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 0.81 |
16 | Troy Trojans | 0.02 |
17 | USC Trojans | -0.75 |
18 | Clemson Tigers | -1.14 |
19 | LSU Tigers | -0.53 |
20 | Mississippi State Bulldogs | 0.00 |
21 | Fresno State Bulldogs | 0.77 |
22 | Pittsburgh Panthers | 0.00 |
23 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 0.00 |
24 | Air Force Falcons | 0.82 |
25 | Duke Blue Devils | 0.00 |