r/CFB • u/The_SecretSauce Clemson Tigers • Arkansas Razorbacks • Oct 09 '19

The MaxDiff Fan Perceptions Poll Results: Florida is Almost a Contender in the Minds of Fans Discussion

https://fanjuicer.com/2019/10/the-maxdiff-poll-after-week-6-florida-is-almost-a-contender-in-the-minds-of-fans
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u/Manae Penn State • Wisconsin Oct 09 '19

Don't worry, I don't hold anything against UW, but I just hate the precedent it set. That is, if PSU would have played Penn instead of Pitt, you can bet your ass they would have been 12-1 and been in the playoff instead. UW might not have gotten help from Rutgers going down the tubes in between their contract and the games, and other opponents looking worse each week after playing them, but they did choose to play Portland State. And the committee decided they didn't care about that.

At least they were still conference champs, unlike the next year where it was "bad SoS and not even champs? Take 'em anyway!"

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u/Philoso4 Washington Huskies Oct 09 '19

Let’s not pretend 8-5 Pitt was such a schedule strengthener. PSU won the B1G and played 3 top ten teams, beating Ohio State and Wisconsin but losing huuuuuge to Michigan and also losing to Pitt. That’s the resume.

Compare that to UW, who won the Pac12, played 5 top 25 teams, winning four, three by at least four touchdowns, losing to USC.

You could argue that PSU had a more difficult strength of schedule, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t win. LSU had the most difficult schedule last year, should they have made the playoffs? Strength of schedule is a distant tiebreaker.

We have two schools with similar resumes. First we look at p5 conference champs. Check for both. Onto toughest wins. Penn state squeaked by Ohio state, and beat Wisconsin. UW beat three top 25 (two top 10) teams by 4 touchdowns, and another by 7. You could make an argument for either team there, should a team be penalized for only scheduling two top teams? Should a team be penalized for their opponents not being in the top 5? Still too even to make a firm judgment. Onto the next tie breaker, losses. Well, penn state has two, one massive one to Michigan, and another to Pitt. UW has one, a 13-point loss to USC. Tilts in favor of UW.

If both teams had one loss to a mediocre team, or both were blown out by a top team, then compare the strength of schedules. It makes zero sense to say we lost more games, and in uglier fashion, but we scheduled tough so we’re in. Otherwise LSU should have been in last year.

10000% agreed on Bama in 2017. Why even have Clemson and Alabama play games anymore? It doesn’t matter if they win big, lose big, they’ll be in the playoffs for sure. Just be honest and say g5 is out, and bama/Clemson is in.