Super 16 Poll Week 7: Complete Rankings Released for 2014 Season
The Super 16 poll is one of the truly great theoretical situations going. It's as fun as wondering who would win in a fight between Batman and Wolverine, or one bear versus 300 organized Yorkies (the organization is a very key caveat in such a fight).
It's just fun to imagine which 16 teams would deserve to be in a College Football Playoff if the sport ever undertook such a format. Thankfully, a group of voters does just that each week in the Super 16 poll.
Let's take a look at how they voted this week.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Rankings
| 1 | Auburn (18) | 5-0 (629) | Auburn |
| 2 | Florida State (20) | 5-0 (626) | Florida State |
| 3 | Ole Miss (1) | 5-0 (526) | Baylor |
| 4 | Mississippi State (2) | 5-0 (525) | Mississippi State |
| 5 | Baylor | 5-0 (493) | Notre Dame |
| 6 | Notre Dame | 5-0 (449) | Ole Miss |
| 7 | Alabama | 4-1 (385) | Michigan State |
| 8 | Michigan State | 4-1 (308) | Alabama |
| 9 | TCU | 4-0 (286) | Oklahoma |
| 10 | Oregon | 4-1 (263) | Oregon |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 4-1 (250) | Georgia |
| 12 | Arizona | 5-0 (249) | Arizona |
| 13 | Georgia | 4-1 (184) | TCU |
| 14 | Texas A&M | 5-1 (166) | Texas A&M |
| 15 | Ohio State | 4-1 (67) | Ohio State |
| 16 | UCLA | 4-1 (35) | UCLA |
| 17 | n/a | n/a | East Carolina |
| 18 | n/a | n/a | Oklahoma State |
| 19 | n/a | n/a | Kansas State |
| 20 | n/a | n/a | Arizona State |
| 21 | n/a | n/a | Clemson |
| 22 | n/a | n/a | Stanford |
| 23 | n/a | n/a | Georgia Tech |
| 24 | n/a | n/a | Nebraska |
| 25 | n/a | n/a | Missouri |
Analysis
Well, anything you might have thought you knew about a theoretical 16-team playoff and how it might have shaped up by the end of the year changed this week.
Just consider this, from SportsCenter on Twitter:
Or this, from Ralph D. Russo of The Associated Press:
Wow.
That's the AP poll, though, and of course, we're more concerned here with the Super 16 Poll and what a 16-team playoff might look like. The above tweets provided a nice context for the historical number of upsets we saw this weekend, sure, but in truth, the weekend that was wouldn't have completely altered the state of a larger playoff format.
Yes, there has been some moving and shaking around on the rankings. After this weekend, there was always bound to be. Oregon was always going to drop down the rankings after losing to Arizona. Alabama was going to take a hit losing to Ole Miss. Ditto for Texas A&M and UCLA.
Of course, the beauty of a 16-team playoff is that one loss wouldn't really hurt the top teams in the nation and would instead give them the chance to prove themselves on the field against the other top 15 teams at the end of the year. This might negate the impact of certain victories on the national level, but it would add a whole new level of drama to the final tournament.
Obviously, the story of the week is Ole Miss after its stunning victory over Alabama on a Saturday that saw the SEC West truly shaken and stirred and turned on its head.
“It’s one of the greatest victories in the history of our school," Hugh Freeze said on his postgame radio show, per Rusty Hampton of The New York Times.
It sure was. And it sure opened up things in the SEC West, where Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State are all looking to earn the top billing, while Alabama and Texas A&M are left wondering if they can fight their way back into a place in the SEC Championship.
It's basically a given that at least one team from the SEC West is going to be represented in this year's College Football Playoff. And that's a shame, because in a 16-team playoff, it currently looks as though five teams from the toughest conference and division in college football would have the chance to prove on the field against other conferences that they were the best team in the country.
It's fun to dream.
More than a few schools in the Big Ten and Pac-12 would be left dreaming in this format, as it appears each conference lacks a truly elite team, and quite a few squads would be left fighting it out for one of the last spots. That, of course, is where the Super 16 Poll would become truly intriguing—for the teams around 12-21 on the polls and rankings looking to prove they deserved a shot in the big dance.
Alas, for now it's only a top four, and one that looks as though it will include Florida State, two SEC teams and either Notre Dame, the top Big 12 team or perhaps Michigan State.
It's a better format than we had before. It's just not as compelling as it could be.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
