Pac 12 Bias?

The latest College Football Playoff Rankings were released Tuesday night and there was plenty of movement in the Top 10.

The first thing that we noticed is that the top four teams – Mississippi State, Oregon, Florida State and TCU – includes the exact same four teams as in our College Football Rankings. Perhaps we should be on the committee?

Although Florida State was victorious over Virginia, 34-20, it wasn’t enough for them to hold their No. 2 ranking as they were supplanted by Oregon, who had a nice road victory over then-No. 17 Utah, 51-27.

“I think the key for us, and again it’s very, very close, it’s very thin, we probably spent more time discussing those two teams plus TCU and Alabama,” committee chairman and Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long said. “It’s razor thin, but in this week, based on this week’s body of work, all things considered, we felt like Oregon had a very slight edge on Florida State.”

If this precedent continues, placing higher value over significant victories and not overall records, this could change the way teams schedule in the future. Instead of big schools paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a “guarantee game” against a “directional technical college,” perhaps they’ll schedule home-and-home’s with some of the other big boys, as long as they’ll be rewarded for doing so. This will add even more value to the college football regular season.

“We looked beyond the record,” Long said. “The committee placed significant value on Oregon’s quality of wins.”

Long mentioned TCU and Alabama being the other “big decision” by the committee. Although TCU is currently ranked fourth and Alabama fifth, public perception says that Alabama is a much better team.

“Alabama would be favored by 9 to 10 points,” an unnamed Las Vegas source told Football Insiders.

Although Alabama is currently on the outside looking in, that can change pretty drastically on Saturday when the Crimson Tide host top-ranked Mississippi State. Alabama still controls their own destiny the rest of the way.

The one dynamic to keep an eye on over the next four weeks of these rankings is that of TCU and Baylor. TCU is currently ranked ahead of Baylor, yet Baylor defeated them head-to-head. Although TCU dominated much of the game, the final score should matter. TCU has a decent non-conference win against Minnesota, where Baylor’s non-conference slate shows no victories of note, but that shouldn’t be enough to overcome a head-to-head result.

Don’t Mess With Navy

The Navy Midshipmen have a 4-5 record this season, but they are proving to be a wrecking block for everyone on their schedule…eventually.

Teams the week after facing Navy this season have a 2-7 record, including Ohio State and Notre Dame’s only losses of the season (against Virginia Tech and Arizona State respectively).

“It’s awful,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said of preparing for Navy. “It’s a great opponent. We’ve been working on it, not necessarily in practice because we haven’t had time; we’ve been trying to change some things on defense, but we’ve already addressed that. We’ll spend time in training camp preparing for that game.”

Navy’s triple-option offense is run by just a handful of FBS teams, and it’s very difficult to prepare for and it makes for a very physical game no matter who the Midshipmen’s opponents are.

“I can tell you amongst the coaches throughout the country, if you were just polling coaches, they would tell you nobody wants to play Navy,” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said prior to his team’s 49-39 victory over the Midshipmen. “But sometimes when you talk about the average fan, they hear about an academy and they don’t think in terms of how difficult an opponent it is.”

If this trend continues it may be even more difficult for the historic Navy program to schedule high profile games.

Shot Fired

Alabama head coach Nick Saban fired his best backhanded compliment to former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, as Saban compared Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott to Florida’s former No. 15.

“(Dak Prescott) reminds you of Tebow in a lot of ways, but is also a very good passer,” Saban said.

Saban likely didn’t mean to insult the former record-setting quarterback, but he obviously didn’t take into account the most sensitive fanbase in all of the world, the Tim Tebow fanbase.

Still, what Saban said isn’t without merit. Prescott is far and away a better passer with a much better arm than that of the current ESPN announcer, who’s NFL career ended after just three seasons due to inefficient passing.

Random Notes

In last week’s Big Ten game of the year, Ohio State topped Michigan State, 49-37, to move the Buckeyes into the driver’s seat in the Big Ten East with a 5-0 record. The victory moved Ohio State all the way up to No. 8 in the College Football Playoff Rankings and it was the first victory over a Top 15 team for Urban Meyer since he became the Buckeyes’ head coach.

Staying in the Big Ten, the most high-profile running back matchup of the season takes place this Saturday as Nebraska travels to Madison to take on Wisconsin. Nebraska’s star back Ameer Abdullah has practiced this week after his MCL sprain against Purdue two weeks ago. Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon just went over the 1,500-yard mark for the season with his 205-yard effort against Purdue. Gordon has gone over 200 yards in three games already this season.

UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley’s NFL stock keeps dropping as there are serious concerns about his pocket presence and his ability to read defenses. The junior will have a tough decision in about a month and a half, as few quarterbacks end up raising their stock by staying in school.