I guess I could select other, but I'm not bothering to register an opinion in the poll because the teams that deserve to be there are there, as are a few other teams that qualify under the rules. Are there some other teams that could have been there in a couple of places? Yes. Are they more or less deserving? Meh--all about the same. The most deserving teams, IMO, are Indiana and Georgia, with Ohio State coming in a close third. Texas Tech won its conference, but its conference isn't much to write home about. Everyone else is just to generate TV revenue. There are seasons where there could be six or even seven teams with a good argument for why they truly deserve to be there. I don't think this is that season, and with conference realignment, I'm not sure that's as likely as it used to be, when there were six legitimately competitive major conferences.
Looking at the pretenders that made it:
5) Oregon: Oregon had a good season, but did it do anything to suggest that it is better than Indiana or Ohio State? No. Indiana beat Oregon, at Oregon, by two scores. Is there anything else Oregon did that would make you sit up and think, "well, that was just kind of a fluky result?" No.
6) Ole Miss: great record, but shockingly weak schedule for an SEC team. One high quality win, one loss (to the actual conference champ), and, like Oregon, nothing in the record that screams out, "yeah, but give them another shot at Georgia!"
7) aTm: much like Ole Miss, good win at Notre Dame, but what else to write home about? And lost to 3-loss Texas. Frankly, that, like Oregon's loss to Indiana, didn't feel like, "oh, just a bad day." Nah, that's just who aTm is.
8) Oklahoma: feels a lot like Ole Miss and aTm. 3-loss Texas kicked their ass, lost to Ole Miss, but a quality win over 3-loss Alabama. Their offense is weak, their defense is good, and nothing about their resume screams out national title contender.
9) Alabama: nuff said about Alabama.
10) Miami: couldn't win a [maybe historically?] weak ACC. So why should I care? Because they beat another team that was left out of the playoff (ND)? Lost to Louiseville and SMU. If we can forgive one head-scratching loss (and I think we probably can), I'm not here to forgive 2. PS, squeaked by a[nother] bad FSU team.
11) Tulane. Wait, what?!? I'm a fan of giving non-P4 teams a shot...if they earn it. If you're Boise State or TCU from a few years back, beat everyone on your schedule, including scheduling and beating one of the big kids, by all means, give it your best. But Ole Miss smoked Tulane, and so did UT-San Antonio. WTF. Why is this team here?
12) JMU: same. Lost to Louisville. Louisville. Is that a decent team? Sure. Is that a loss to build an entry into the CFB playoff on when the rest of the schedule is a collection of non-P4 creampuffs? No.
Ok, but what about the teams that were left out? I'll start with
13) ND: first, two losses, including a home loss. Were they to good teams? Sure. Were they to the elite teams? Not really. And the rest of the schedule was soft. No softer than most of those SEC teams that are crowding the middle of the CFB field, but they also don't have any great wins to point to (like those schools do). Is this a really good team that, given a break or two, could win the CFP? Yes, it's both of those things. But do they "deserve" to be there? No.
14) Texas: 3-loss Texas. 3 losses. I don't care if one was a game they didn't have to schedule, they lost to Florida. Bad Florida, not Urban Meyer or Steve Spurrier Florida. And Georgia kicked their ass. Yes, they have better wins than most of the teams on this list, but this isn't a case of a single oopsie, plus an unfair scheduling situation. Nope, even with just their two SEC losses, they wouldn't "deserve" to be here. Could they generate some nice TV revenue for the playoff? Sure. Could they win it? Yeah, maybe. See ND, above.
15) BYU: come on. Stop playing.
16) Duke? Lol.
17) Michigan? Michigan is, by my estimation, the 7th best team in the Big Ten. Pass.
18) Vanderbilt? Like their quarterback and, to be honest, they should have as good an argument as anyone on this passed-over list: but they lost to 3-loss Alabama, and it wasn't close, and they lost to 3-loss Texas. So...no, they weren't screwed either.
