re: CFB Advanced Metrics and Computer Polls, Week 12

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If a team wins a conference then how are they undeserving? Who cares how many losses they have? They accomplished something that nobody else in the conference could do, win a championship.

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Every team in the ACC Coastal division has at least 3 losses and 2 conference losses and the highest rated team in the Massey Composite is 33rd (Virginia) and there is a good chance that whoever wins the division has at least 4 losses given their remaining schedules.

So while Clemson will be heavy favorites against any Coastal opponent an upset of that magnitude or even bigger happens every year, and has happened at least twice this year (Wisconsin-Illinois; Georgia-South Carolina).

And those upsets weren’t especially “lucky” just the luck of an underdog’s better performance coinciding the the favorite’s poorer performance and a few random plays in their favor here and there (turnovers, missed FGs, etc.).

The fact that an 3 or 4 loss team, ranked worse than 30+ other teams, in a historically terrible conference, can get in based solely on a single upset won without any unusual luck outside their control is bad enough to scrap the automatic bid idea. But the possibility of some external luck in their favor like a Lawrence/Etienne injury, inexcusably one-sided officiating (Oklahoma/Oregon onside kick game, WVU-Pitt in 2007, etc) should eliminate any remaining semblance of deserving a bid.

I think if they had automatic bids, they should go back to the BCS requirement where it’s an automatic bid provided a team finishes within the top-12 or whatever.