The College Football Playoff rankings and shows are good for me.
The reason: I'm a sports columnist. My job is to bring interesting and sometimes controversial topics and opinions to your eyes and brains. I'm here to inform, but - let's face it - also entertain.
So I'm thankful for the CFP rankings and TV shows. They give me column fodder like - hey! - today.
Within social media, they are gold.
Joel Klatt on Twitter: "Pac 12 and Big 12 have 7 teams ranked and 0% are ranked higher in CFP Rankings than AP Poll...of 10 SEC and B1G teams 60% are ranked higher."
From Pat Forde: "Brand-name bias in full effect with the selection committee."
From College Gameday: "The CFP is out, and Kirk Herbstreit is giving the committee a 'standing ovation' for looking past wins & losses."
There are the jokes, like "hey, another Alabama loss and the Tide might reach No. 1!"
If we can be serious for a few, though, I'd like to give college football's powers a piece of advice.
Stop it. Please. In the words of a copyright lawyer, cease and desist.
Absolutely nothing about the shows and rankings are good for college football - unless you want to count the dollars made through the production and broadcast of the shows.
They do get decent ratings. Hopefully, though, those ratings will fall off. The hope is the weekly shows leading up to the finale get stale.
For the sake of those running college football, that is. For the sake of those within college football.
In sum, the rankings are embarrassing. The rationale provided weekly is flawed. Each week it's like watching committee chairman Jeff Long playing the part of the emperor in his new (absent) clothes. He's exposed. His committee is exposed.
The committee should simply wait until season's end, unveil their selections, drop the microphone and thank all for coming. Leave the curtain around the Wizard of Oz up for as long as humanly possible. For the love of God, Pete and college football. Please.
Instead, we have bickering. We have stones being thrown. We have college students playing football derided because their nonconference schedules show SMU instead of LSU. There are bad feelings all around.
Also, the committee always looks foolish to a large portion of fans. Always. That's to be expected when so much is subjective. But sometimes the committee earns the red face.
Just a couple examples. Iowa moved up in the rankings from No. 9 to No. 5 after beating Indiana by 35-27. My questions: Really? Off that?
Some have speculated the committee was making up for a bad ranking of Iowa the week prior. If so, though, doesn't that show a flaw in the previous week's process? Shouldn't we be even more skeptical? (Aside from that, Baylor would crush Iowa.)
Also, there seems to be no rhyme or reason in the committee's collective thinking. At the end of last season, it seemed clear the committee was leaning on number crunching. Ohio State's strength of schedule and power number got a bump at the end after beating then-10-2 Wisconsin. TCU tumbled after playing then-2-10 Iowa State. Also, Baylor jumped TCU, although not into the playoffs. The Bears had just defeated Kansas State.
Numbers. It came down to numbers.
This season the committee is all over the place. My favorite moment has been when Long said the fact that Stanford essentially played a 9 a.m. Pacific time game in its loss to Northwestern was a factor. I envisioned Bugs Bunny slapping his leg, doubling over in laughter and saying, "Stop it son, yer killin' me here!"
Also, um, Alabama has a loss. Herbstreit might want to give a standing ovation for the committee picking the Tide, but we know the Crimson Tide can be defeated. Because it has been defeated - to a team, Ole Miss, that lost to Memphis and Arkansas. Yes, Alabama's win over LSU was impressive, but it's like the Pope gave resolution to the Tide and Stanford for its losses.
That written, let's go to computer rankings, which will always be used as crutches. The "eye test" is very subjective. My Baylor is your Clemson. Your Ohio State is my Notre Dame. So computers have to be used - as they so clearly were at the end of last season.
The latest Sagarin ratings have 1. Alabama, 2. Clemson, 3. Oklahoma and 4. Baylor. (Big 12 fans can tell committee members to stick that in their eyes.) A BCS Proxy ranking has 1. Clemson, 2. Ohio State, 3. Alabama and 4. Baylor. Again, at least one Big 12 team makes the grade.
The point here, however, is not to whine for the Big 12, which includes West Virginia University. It is not to point out the flaws of the CFP committee's thinking. Those are very evident.
It's to ask that the CFP limit our exposure to the flawed thinking. It's to ask that college football takes a tiny financial hit by not airing the weekly shows and provoking bickering, consternation and stone throwing. It's not necessary. It's not good for the sport. There's no redeeming value to the shows whatsoever. No one can do anything about schedules at this point. If anything, it might encourage larger than necessary blowouts by teams needing to climb.
Simply do all college sports fans a favor. Expand the playoff to eight teams. (Get rid of conference championships if you must.) Save yourself some grief. Provide a little intrigue. And just give us one season-ending list.
Please.