The Daily Player 12: Passion or Perserverance?

Published on 15-Nov-2016 by Alan Adamsson

Football - NCAA    NCAA Football Daily Update

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The Daily Player 12: Passion or Perserverance?

What do these champions in the professional ranks all have in common?

That's right. They were all wild cards in the post-season. Got hot at the right time.

 

However, those brackets included every champion the season had to offer. As it should be.

So why should college football be any different?

  • Only 12 games? The NFL plays just 16.
  • Different schedules? Every pro team does that, and it's often not very equitable.

And yet, squawking heads persist in making arguments for wild cards nudging teams that earned conference championships out of a four-team bracket.

As usual, it'll come down to what they're thinking in Grapevine.

With their duly publicized mandate in mind -- and its malleability being anyone's guess -- here's what the Selection Committee decreed after witnessing Week 11's November Massacre:

1. Alabama 3. Michigan
2. Ohio State 4. Clemson
   
5. Louisville   9. Oklahoma
6. Washington 10. Colorado
7. Wisconsin 11. Oklahoma State
8. Penn State 12. Utah

The Daily Player 12 has a mandate, too: cheese on every nacho and a literal reading of the CFP's criteria.

It's about results. Not opinons. A through reading of its formula can be found here.

Using this esteemed formula crafted by ale and culled by closing time, take a look at how Bovada has set the championship odds:

Bovada futures college football

Dudes are obviously waiting for Clemson to put a stake in Louisville's chances to win the ACC Atlantic because, well, it's Clemson. Money changers have long memories.

As to the Big Ten, four contenders are still waiting for the dust to clear.

Then, there's the Geeks' perspective, bless their data-driven little souls:

Anderson-Hester rankings

Read 'em and weep, ACC and Big XII. You are what 11 weeks into the campaign say you are.

And that leads us to this week's totally scrutable Daily Player 12:

Daily Player 12

The net effect:

  • Louisville's still boxed in by being shut out of a title game, not to mention having no notable non-con wins.
  • The Big Ten will sort itself out on the field, as it should be.
  • Losses, schmosses. A conference championship is a marathon won. Full stop.
  • The Geeks rated North Carolina as No 28 in the nation; the Heels got skunked in this column.
  • Oklahoma at West Virginia looms large, pending another apocalypse; the Sooners came in at No 16 on this list.

Barring human error, it's still setting up to be a champions-only playoff.

At least on The Daily Player 12. As it should be.