J3C College Football Top 25 (end of regular season)

And once again, here we are.

Another regular season has wrapped up with conference championship weekend, but what did we learn?  Well,  we know that Georgia might have fallen victim to the single dumbest play call in the history of college football … we know that Pitt was at most the best of a bad lot in their own division … we know that Ohio State can grind people down … we know that Oklahoma is capable of putting up points … we know that the Pac101216whatever is once again irrelevant to the playoff conversation … we know the UCF can beat mediocre teams with even their backup QB … and though we might not really care much, we know that scheduling willing patsies to fill out your 12 game schedule can help when bowl bids are handed out (Virginia Tech) or perhaps hurt (Iowa State … really?  Drake?  At home?  C’mon).

All that’s left for me until after the post-season is one final stab at ranking the upper 20-25 percent of the teams playing D1 football.   More than usual though, I’m a little stuck, on my own words.   For years I’ve explained my Top 25 as being
“part art, part science, part instinct …  my eyeball of the overall.”   A combination of how I perceive teams’ ability, their performance, and their relative positioning in light of both.

That’s worked for me as a guideline for quite a while but this year I’m bumping my head into another set of criteria, the charge given to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.   See, their wording is different.   They’re asked, quite simply really, to rank what they consider “the best teams”, in order.  And I’m not sure what’s bugging me most here is the word you’d think.  It isn’t “best” that’s making me a little crazy, it’s “team”.

For the second year in a row, my top three slot in pretty easily.  It’s the pesky #4 spot that’s the rub.   There are three candidates for it in my mind.   One I eliminate pretty quickly due to their flawed decision-making of their head coach.   There’s a certain team that I admittedly dislike (to say the least) but that I think probably has the best overall roster of the trio, unfortunately for them right now they don’t have a head coach to match.  That leaves me debating who is 4th and who is 5th.  And the reason I’m debating it is more the word “team” than anything.   Having perhaps the best college football player in the country certainly lends credibility on his side of the ball, but when you look like you’re not even trying on the other side for more than a month of the season … the other candidate certainly knows how to lay an egg in grand fashion, but they also look like they at least understand there’s more to a football team than offense.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Last year, when I did this edition of my Top 25, I already knew how the committee ranked them.   I disagreed.
This year, I’m roughly ten hours in front of the committee announcement … and I strongly suspect it’ll be their turn to disagree with me.   So it goes.

For the last time in 2018, here’s the new JonsThreeCents College Football Top 25.
See you after the post-season is done.

(last week’s ranking follows their name)

1. Alabama (1)
2. Clemson (2)
3. Notre Dame (3)
4. Ohio State (6)
5. Oklahoma (5)
6. Georgia (4)
7. Florida (7)
8. Michigan (8)
9. Washington (10)
10. UCF (9)
11. LSU (13)
12. Penn State (12)
13. Washington State (14)
14. West Virginia (15)
15. Texas (11)
16. Kentucky (18)
17. Syracuse (19)
18. Fresno State (22)
19. Mississippi State (20)
20. Utah (16)
21. Texas A&M (23)
22. Boise State (17)
23. Army (24)
24. NC State (Un)
25. Appalachian State (Un)

Dropped: Northwestern (21), Utah State (25)