The Daily Player 12: Because It's Time

Where's that Michigan linebacker when you need him?

The dude with the stake.

We found a much better place for him to plant it. Mind you, any place would have been better, but that's beside the point.

Still. Stand by. It's time for The Daily Player to strongly suggest where the Selection Committee should stick it.

Keeping in mind those dudes -- and one dudette -- just peeked above their bunker for the first time, we'll be gentle. Especially since their list won't really create a firestorm until Sun 7 Dec, which may be the second time that date lives in infamy. A much lesser infamy, yes, but infamy nonetheless.

Good luck on an Other Five team crashing the bracket. That'll only happen subject to its surviving double-secret probation or whatever else gets cooked up to stand in the way.

Here's the Committee's Top 12:

1. Mississippi State	3. Auburn xxxx
2. Florida State	4. Mississippi
5. Oregon	9. Kansas State
6. Alabama	10. Notre Dame
7. Texas Christian	11. Baylor
8. Michigan State	12. Arizona

Three SEC teams on the inside track? OK. No complaints yet. They're all in the hunt for the conference title, and that's allegedly a key criteria for who's making the bracket when all is done and dusted.

In the committee's own words, a championship means something. So do strength of schedule and head-to-head results.

With those factors in mind, it's time to introduce The Daily Player 12.

This will be a list with absolutely no variables beyond what the committee dictated as guidelines. Yes, they tossed in weasel words like injury effects, but screw that stuff. FBS teams have 85 players on scholarship. This is a team sport. That means everyone. Coach 'em up! Give the bench experience during blowouts instead of running up the score.

The Daily Player 12 is going hard with absolutes, which is not only logical, but fair. Take the art out of the process and put it back in the galleries for people dressed in tweed and sipping Château Lafite 1959 to peruse. Championship brackets are fist on the bar stuff:

• Until a conference title is clinched, division leaders will be considered as first-place teams.
• Power Five scores in non-conference games will be measured on a win-loss basis.
• Head-to-head results will be measured separately on a win-loss basis.
• Bookies are the only evaluators who put their dosh where their conclusions are. Bovada championship odds will be factored into the rankings.
• Geeks have an unbiased place in this process; Anderson-Hester computer rankings are easily understandable and will be included.

It's not that complicated, nor should it be:

• The Big XII has ten teams; no other conference has a division that large, so a first-place team will get 10 points, a second-place team will get 9 points, and so forth. If a team is tied for a position, it will be considered to hold the higher position. A conference champion will be awarded 5 bonus points.
• Non-con Power Five wins will be worth 3 points; those losses will be worth 1 point.
• Notre Dame's schedule will be measured against ACC teams.
• If BYU ever becomes a factor, we'll figure it out then.
• Head-to-head conference wins will be worth 3 points; those losses will be worth -1 point.
• Bovada and Geek rankings will be based on a 25-point scale and factored down by a constant of 0.3; thus, a first-place position will be worth (25 x 0.3) = 7.5 points, second place for either will be worth (24 x 0.3) = 7.2 points, and so on. If a team is tied for a position, it will be considered to hold the higher position.

OK, this is starting to sound like the tail of those prescription drug commercials, but at least now the process is transparent.

		Stdg	NC-P5	HH	Bov	Geek	Total
1.	Oregon ...	10	3	7	7.2	6.0	33.2
2.	Florida St ...	10	6	3	6.9	7.2	33.1
3.	Auburn ...	10	3	7	6.0	6.9	32.9
4.	Miss St ...	10		6	7.2	7.5	30.7
5.	Notre Dame ...	9	9	1	5.4	5.7	30.1
6.	Alabama ...	9	3	4	7.5	6.3	29.8
7.	Georgia ...	10	3	3	6.9	5.4	28.3
8.	Ole Miss ...	9		4	6.0	6.6	25.6
9.	Utah ...	9	3	4	3.3	5.7	25.0
10.	LSU ...	7	3	5	4.5	3.9	23.4
11.	UCLA ...	7	6	2	3.3	4.5	22.8
12.	W Virginia ...	9	2	5	5.7		21.7

This list is guaranteed to change weekly because -- like the Geeks -- it only accounts for games played. And that's allegedly what the Selection Committee is supposed to do.

A few random observations:

• As of this first installment, the committee and The Daily Player 12 have three teams in common for the bracket. Maybe there's hope for that outfit, after all.
• Note that cupcake non-cons didn't do the Mississippi schools any favors, which is what the true football gods intended.
• West Virginia has yet to crack the Top 12 on the Anderson-Hester scale. They're hot now, but this is a full body of work format, just like the committee intended.
• And when the 5 points are added to each conference champion, those teams will be fast-tracked to the penthouse, which is a damn good reason why conferences exist in the first place.

No travel budgets were harmed during the making of this list. Reasonable amounts of quality adult beverages were consumed. Too reasonable. No software other than Excel was required. And no preconceived notions were added.

Look for The Daily Player 12 on a digital device near you every Tuesday for the rest of the season. And hope for an eight-team playoff within the next four years.