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As more and more college football games are cancelled, the more and more these college football playoff rankings feel both unsurprising — and infuriating. This week’s unveiling finds the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at #2 once again, while the rest of the top 4 are unchanged.
Take a look at the full #CFBPlayoff Top 25 rankings for games played through December 6.
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 9, 2020
Is your team in?
 pic.twitter.com/J9RA8Ep1TW
The biggest mystery is what the committee will end up doing with the Ohio State Buckeyes. With the cancellation of The Game with the Michigan Wolverines (Skunkbear COVID), OSU finishes the regular season at 5-0 and doesn’t qualify for the Big 10 Championship game.
FIVE GAMES.
So — what the hell are we even doing here? Even if (really, when) the Big 10 changes their rules for the championship game to let OSU slide in, a win over the Northwestern Wildcats to get to 6-0 is still laughable compared to resumes from the rest of the top 6 and in-state power — the Cincinnati Bearcats.
I understand that Ohio State is extremely talented, and is likely one of the top 4 teams in the country — but half of a season? Really? All these years of flipping out about Notre Dame’s lack of a 13th data point (which Ohio State and Alabama have blown up in the past) and the committee may put a team in the playoff with less than HALF of the games played?
Why even play the game? Why not just let the recruiting analysts and data nerds and NFL scouts choose the top 4 each year in August and then we can sit around and twiddle our thumbs for the next 4 months as we wait on the playoffs?
This isn’t Ohio State’s fault — but that doesn’t mean they should be given a pass because their conference screwed this whole thing up from start to (almost) finish.
Whatever.
Storytime with Chris Fallica. https://t.co/ST6XTEAR2b pic.twitter.com/3MWwH5oZ3h
— Brendan (@verypiratey) December 8, 2020
5-0 team with a seven point victory over Indiana has a slot locked up while everyone else has to keep playing for their spot (he implies a certain type of ND loss would eliminate them). Maybe in the future Ohio State can just send in practice tape as their data points. pic.twitter.com/k2hqfEWZL1
— Greg Flammang (@greg2126) December 8, 2020
I was stupid to think Barry Alvarez would go any other way. https://t.co/MLMoTRU61f pic.twitter.com/UGbLDcV7a9
— Brendan (@verypiratey) December 8, 2020
Makes me wonder what ND and Clemson are doing playing in a conference title game when they’ve already got resumes to get in the playoff at 2, 3. Just play the game then. https://t.co/3ZeSRFrOTj
— Greg Flammang (@greg2126) December 8, 2020
I encourage Notre Dame fans to use this tweet in the future anytime anyone makes a specious "13th data point" or "join a conference" argument as a precursor for playoff inclusion. #NDFB https://t.co/RNLJo3aQii
— Jude (@ndjrs) December 8, 2020