Look, before we get into this, it’s important to note that in this pandemic year of 2020, things aren’t always easy to figure out. Some grace and understanding across a lot of fronts would be wise.
However, there are some media members’ thought processes in ranking college football teams that just aren’t adding up this year. With the college football season not exactly aligned schedule-wise, some are having a very hard time figuring out how to treat teams equitably, fairly, or even with a nugget of common sense.
We’ve seen teams appear in major polls, and then not, only to make an appearance again because of the waffling nature of whether certain Power Five conferences were going to play. Heck, even when they appeared early on, there were literal asterisks appearing next to names.
And take Ohio State’s favorite media member, Brett McMurphy, as an example of how confused some members are. He released his AP rankings last week that had five SEC teams in the top ten. Big Ten teams were reportedly not eligible yet until the following week (now this week) so it’s forgivable to not have Ohio State ranked. However, as an important reminder, SEC teams did not play a game until this past weekend.
AP Top 25 will be released around 2 p.m. ET
Big Ten teams will be eligible for inclusion starting next Sunday.
And I'm confident Pac-12 will be joining the fray a week after that, maybe with the Mountain West. https://t.co/N1OXljEqch
— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) September 20, 2020
And now, this week, McMurphy ranked teams again but put a disclaimer that he only ranked teams that have played, therefore leaving out Power Five teams like Ohio State and Oregon.
My @AP_Top25 ballot (I'm only ranking teams that have played):
1-Clemson
2-Bama
3-UF
4-Miami
5-MissSt
6-NotreDame
7-UGA
8-Auburn
9-UCF
10-UNC
11-Tennessee
12-VaTech
13-Texas
14-Cincy
15-A&M
16-BYU
17-OklaSt
18-Memphis
19-KSU
20-Louisiana
21-Pitt
22-OU
23-Marshall
24-SMU
25-LSU— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 27, 2020
So, if you’re keeping track, McMurphy is only ranking teams that are eligible, until they’re eligible, but will only rank them if they’ve played, unless they play football in the SEC, then it’s okay to change your mind.
Got it?
What a strange and weird season we’re living. One thing that never seems to change is some media members’ bias (sometimes even unknowingly) look at SEC teams.
The good news is that this will all change when Ohio State gets on the field again, or so we hope.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.
Download the USA TODAY SportsWire app to follow Buckeyes Wire and your other favorite teams in the Apple Store for iPhones and Google Play for Android devices.
