Honestly I don't believe deserving should be part of the conversation, I only wrote that in response to a previous comment. As long as it is call the FBS Playoff Rankings then I expect the best teams to make the playoffs. If they want to veer into deserving then just rename it the FBS Playoff Standings and be done with it. Come the end of the season there is enough data for the committee to look at the teams and ask if a team is really talented enough to play a competitive game in the playoffs.
Schedules are greatly unbalanced, this absolutely has to be taken into consideration. A two loss Alabama or OSU with their schedules in the two toughest divisions is much more impressive than an undefeated Cincy all day every day.
For a mid major to be taken seriously for the playoffs they need a killer OOC schedule and come out on top because their conference schedule is mostly garbage. But at best they schedule one helmet school then whine if they run the table and get left out. That's on their athletic director, not the P5 schools that out perform everyone else year after year, to play a schedule challenging enough to show that they are in fact one of the top four teams in the nation.
This.
If you want to be included, do what FSU did back in the day and take an "anyone, anywhere" approach to scheduling. Cincy's schedule this year:
- 8 AAC opponents
- An FCS school
- Miami, OH
- Indiana
- Notre Dame
That is absolute garbage. Even if ND is REALLY good it is only one game. Upsets happen, how do we know that wasn't just a really bad day for Notre Dame or a really good day for Cincy or both? We don't and can't because their next best opponent is complete garbage. I have no idea if
this ranking is any good but it looks credible enough so I'll use it, here is Cincy's schedule then I'll compare tOSU's:
- #8 Notre Dame
- #36 SMU
- #44 UCF
- #57 Indiana
- #71 Tulsa
- #92 Tulane
- #95 Miami, OH
- #105 USF
- #106 ECU
- #112 Temple
- #116 Navy
- FCS Murray State
Ohio State:
- #6 Michigan
- #7 MSU
- #10 Oregon
- #15 PSU
- #39 Purdue
- #40 Maryland
- #51 Minnesota
- #57 Indiana
- #71 Tulsa
- #79 Nebraska
- #91 Rutgers
- #119 Akron
Purdue is considered an easy week for Ohio State, it is a game that would be embarrassing to lose (ask Iowa). They are the 5th toughest team Ohio State will play this year and roughly equivalent to Cincy's second toughest game.
On top of this, assuming that both Cincy and tOSU make their respective CCG's, tOSU's opponent is likely to be #11 Iowa while Cincy's is likely to be #36 SMU. So with 13 games in the Buckeyes would have played five ranked higher than Cincy's second toughest opponent and two ranked higher than Cincy's toughest opponent. Going 11-2 in the B1G (or SEC or any other P5 league for that matter) is a LOT tougher than going 13-0 against Cincy's schedule.
As pointed out above, this is partially Cincinnati's fault. They chose to schedule an FCS school and a MAC school OOC. Then they chose a historically awful B1G school for their #3 OOC game and only scheduled one OOC game against a team with a pulse.
Want to be included, schedule like you mean it. In 1981 independent FSU went on a five-game road trip of:
- @ Nebraska on 9/19
- @ Ohio State on 10/3
- @ Notre Dame on 10/10
- @ Pitt on 10/17 (this was when Pitt was good)
- @ LSU on 10/24
They wanted to be included in the NC discussion so they made a contender schedule. They beat tOSU, ND, and LSU but lost to Nebraska and Pitt. At least they tried. When your second best game is against #36 you don't have an argument.