I disagree on 2 points:
Alabama jumped from #5 to #1 once it had a marquee win and never relinquished the spot. No one would have cried fowl if they had kept Oregon or FSU ahead of us. Bama fans, maybe, but not on a national level. Alabama, and the SEC, were given the proper amount of respect. The SEC held every #1 ranking given and routinely were ranked as the highest 1 loss, 2 loss, and 3 loss teams. Fans may have SEC fatigue and the media may play to that but people who know college football have consistently given the SEC respect in the polls for the last 2 decades.
I feel like many people still fail to see these week to week rankings as fluid. In the AP/Coaches Poll, once you earned a spot in the poll you pretty much kept that spot barring a loss, meltdown, or major upset by a team behind you over a team just ahead of you. That's not the way the committee does it and they've always been 100% clear about that. Last week, TCU's body of work elevated it well ahead of Baylor. FSU at the time still lacked any real gusto to their schedule but being undefeated kept them in the mix(ie, #4). Once Baylor beat KState that greatly improved their body of wor and put them on par with TCU. Once Baylor and TCU had comparable bodies of work they defaulted to the head to head between them (per the committee's own criteria in the CFP media guide). This established Baylor as moving past TCU. Meanwhile, FSU played a conference championship game against a ranked team and prevailed. Yes, Baylor played KState but it wasn't a conference championship game it was just part of their regular season--a season that included a bad loss, 3 OOC cream puffs and 3 byes. FSU's new body of work was simply better than Baylor's. FSU moved to #3. tOSU, like FSU, played a ranked team in a conference championship and not only won but smashed them. With their 3rd string QB no less. Add in the BigXII fiasco about naming a champion and tOSU gets the clear nod.It was very clear to me weeks ago that the Committee wanted Ohio State in the play offs and I mentioned this on other threads. The Committee really did a face plant naming TCU #3 the previous week instead of #4. The Committee's rationale that #3, 4, 5 & 6 were virtually equal is lame. If that was the fact, then name 1 and 2 and explain the other four were virtually equal.
When Manning dropped out I thought that would hurt the SEC, especially following all the talk about no SEC representative. Of course, the rest of the nation is tired (aka jealous) of the SEC with it winning the last BCS Championships until the Barn failed miserably last year and let the Conference down. Any excuse, however slight, to exclude the SEC would have been taken if it could.RTR
Alabama jumped from #5 to #1 once it had a marquee win and never relinquished the spot. No one would have cried fowl if they had kept Oregon or FSU ahead of us. Bama fans, maybe, but not on a national level. Alabama, and the SEC, were given the proper amount of respect. The SEC held every #1 ranking given and routinely were ranked as the highest 1 loss, 2 loss, and 3 loss teams. Fans may have SEC fatigue and the media may play to that but people who know college football have consistently given the SEC respect in the polls for the last 2 decades.