Super 16 Poll Week 12: Complete Rankings Released for 2014 Season
The four-team playoff system isn't even a year old, and already you can see the complaints coming a mile away. Very deserving teams seem bound to be left out, the selection committee's criteria is going to be dissected and probed and second-guessed and, as always, someone is going to just be unhappy with everything.
That's life. But could it be a bit better?
The Super 16 Poll thinks so. Each week, its group of voters rank the top 16 teams in the nation, acting as a selection committee for a theoretical 16-team playoff. Below, you'll find the full poll along with Bleacher Report's official Top 25 and a closer look at the college football landscape.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
| 1 | Mississippi State | Mississippi State |
| 2 | Florida State | Florida State |
| 3 | Oregon | Oregon |
| 4 | Alabama | Alabama |
| 5 | TCU | TCU |
| 6 | Baylor | Arizona State |
| 7 | Arizona State | Baylor |
| 8 | Ohio State | Ohio State |
| 9 | Auburn | Auburn |
| 10 | Ole Miss | Ole Miss |
| 11 | Nebraska | Nebraska |
| 12 | Michigan State | Kansas State |
| 13 | Kansas State | Michigan State |
| 14 | Notre Dame | Notre Dame |
| 15 | UCLA | Georgia |
| 16 | Georgia | UCLA |
| 17 | N/A | Arizona |
| 18 | N/A | LSU |
| 19 | N/A | Duke |
| 20 | N/A | Clemson |
| 21 | N/A | Wisconsin |
| 22 | N/A | Marshall |
| 23 | N/A | Georgia Tech |
| 24 | N/A | Colorado State |
| 25 | N/A | Utah |
Just about everything in college football hinges on the matchup between Alabama and Mississippi State this week, so this week's polls and rankings almost feel irrelevant. Win and Mississippi State is all but in, even if it loses to Ole Miss. But lose and Alabama is suddenly in the driver's seat, though the Iron Bowl still looms large.
Of course, the worst possible scenario for the rest of college football might just be Alabama winning out, Mississippi State only losing to Alabama (which would be one heck of a road loss, keep in mind), and the SEC West still potentially getting two teams in the four-team playoff.
The winners of the Pac-12, Big Ten and Big 12 would probably cry foul if a non-conference champion like Mississippi State vaulted ahead of them in the rankings. But at the end of the day we want the four best teams in college football, right?
One of the above teams that probably wouldn't have to worry about much is Oregon. The Ducks are red hot right now and, should they win out, would likely be looking at a resume that would include wins over Michigan State, UCLA, Stanford, Utah and Arizona State (the likely Pac-12 title game).
There's no way they won't be ranked in the top four if that happens.
Of course, they have to get through Arizona State first, a team that introduced itself to the country with a definitive win over Notre Dame on Saturday.
"I think that we knew that this was the hump we needed to get over," Sun Devils running back D.J. Foster told Ted Miller of ESPN.com after the game. "At the end of the day, it was just another game for us. But we knew that we had to get this win to impress some people."
But man, wouldn't it be fun if we could just see all of these teams play? After all, how many really, really good two-loss teams are out there right now?
Auburn, on any given night, can beat any team in the country. Ole Miss and Notre Dame can probably do the same. Michigan State has lost to two very good teams in Oregon and Ohio State. Kansas State has lost versus two very good teams in Auburn and TCU. UCLA has handed Arizona State its only loss and was probably a late Utah field goal away from still being in the playoff conversation.
A 16-team playoff might never happen—it's certainly not coming anytime soon—but this year is such a perfect example of how epic it would truly be. Life is many things, but fair generally isn't one of them.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
