Just relax.
As tempting as it might be to go off on the College Football Playoff selection committee because your team got shafted and your conference isnt getting the respect it deserves, theres a better way.
Take a breath. Take a walk. Go to bed.
None of it really matters.
Admittedly, thats not the most exciting takeaway from the first release of the committees weekly rankings, nor is it a great advertisement to keep reading beyond this sentence.
But stick with us for a little longer because, at the very least, youre going to get the truth here rather than the fake drama a television network is duty bound to manufacture.
In the first 11 years of the CFP, regardless of whether it was a four- or 12-team field, there is one trend that never changes: For all the attention on what the committees doing and what metrics its using, the season does almost all the work for them.
Every time.
So while we could argue about whether Oregon should be above Ole Miss, and whether Georgia should be ahead of them both, the beautiful reality of college football right now is that the games this month are going to tell us a heck of a lot more than whatever Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades says on ESPN as the committee chair.
What matters?
BYU at Texas Tech clarifying a lot of things about the Big 12.
Texas playing a whole month of elimination games.
Georgia Tech facing a midterm against Pittsburgh and final exam against Georgia.
Ole Miss feeling the pressure of clinching a bid in games it should win, particularly an Egg Bowl in Starkville.
We could go on. But only then, once those key pieces of data are in, will we be able to figure out how the committee looks at this puzzle and whether the scrutiny on strength of schedule that came up in the offseason will have a material impact on how teams are selected.
Coming into Tuesday, there was only one relevant issue for the committee to weigh in on that could foreshadow how the rankings look in a month: The Miami vs. Notre Dame debate.
If you remember, Miami beat Notre Dame narrowly in Week 1. There was some talk among the commentariat that the head-to-head win could end up as a tiebreaker for the committee if they both finished at 10-2.
That conversation, at least for now, appears moot. The committee slotted Notre Dame at No. 10 and the Hurricanes all the way down at No. 18 after their second loss last weekend at SMU.
Those rankings reflect the reality of this season: Despite Miamis head-to-head early season win, Notre Dame has performed significantly better overall. It seems like at least a signal flare from the committee that if it believes Notre Dame is a better team, it wont let the head-to-head result stand in the way of putting the Irish in over Miami.
Thats the right thing to do based on what weve seen so far.
And its probably the only real development to file away as we head toward the end of the season.
The rest is this stuff will work itself out. Just like it always does.