There's a belief in certain circles of the college football world that the powers that be are close to delivering a fatal blow to the Anger Industrial Complex.
During the days of the BCS, anger was everywhere. How could a computer tell us who deserved a shot at a national championship? Of course, after this first set of rankings, Notre Dame (No. 1 in FPI, No. 3 in SP+) would probably be happy with a "Terminator"-like AI takeover if it means getting a fair shake for the playoff.
The four-team playoff helped settle some of the most emotional outrage, but from the beginning (when Baylor and TCU were left on the cutting room floor) to the end (when 13-0 Florida State was snubbed because of a QB injury), there was still plenty of frustration, hostility and debate.
The advent of the 12-team playoff figured to settle things even more. After all, how many years were there even half a dozen teams worthy of playoff inclusion? Surely handing an invite to 12 schools would settle any need for finger-pointing. And then, of course, last year we saw the committee reverse engineer its way into being permanently deleted from Notre Dame's Christmas card list.
So now, here we are, on the brink of doubling the field yet again -- from 12 to 24. No more snubs. No more deserving teams left out. No more bitterness and hand-wringing and "what might have been" soliloquies. No more anger.
Yeah right.
Anyone who thinks opening the doors to a once-elite society and ushering in hordes of normies will somehow reduce hostility, frustration and resentment has never been to the Admiral's Club at CLT.
No, anger is like a virus. It flourishes through exposure. When just four teams could make the playoff, only a handful of others ever came down with a serious case of GCOS (Game Control Outrage Syndrome) and even fewer still required something more than a good night's sleep and the start of March Madness to get over their frustration.
But the more programs within proximity of the playoff's arbitrary cut-off line, the more outrage there will be.
Three years ago, Nebraska's only concern by early November was corn futures. Now, the Huskers can spend a full month being outraged. In the olden days, there might have been some lipstick-on-the-pig arguments for decent-but-forgettable teams to get their shot, but now that NC State doesn't have Dave Doeren to kick around anymore, it can turn its attention squarely to the committee. And while the weekly rankings of the committee's top 25 used to cease all meaning after around No. 15, we'll now be splitting hairs over who gets the honor of the best 4-4 team in the country. (Note: Auburn has long established squatter's rights for that spot.)
And do we really think the committee is remotely prepared to distinguish between the 21st- and 27th-best teams in the country? Is there any world in which the explanation for how the folks in that room settled on Nos. 22, 23 and 24 didn't involve the words "meenie," "miny" and "moe?" While there will no doubt be some rumblings from the sport's ivory towers about first-round byes and on-campus home games, we're entering an era in which the greatest outrage will come from places like Minneapolis, Starkville and Pittsburgh.
Just look at the bottom of this week's top 25 for a sneak peek at all the anger to come.
Florida and South Carolina would be playoff teams. The Gamecocks check in at No. 21 and the Gators at No. 24. How do we know they're good? Well South Carolina beat a ranked Florida team, and Florida has a good loss against ranked South Carolina. Never mind that they both have more losses than SMU, Virginia Tech, Duke and Northwestern -- all unranked.
Three-loss Oregon is in, too. You'll be shocked to learn that three-loss Illinois and three-loss Oklahoma State -- both of whom beat Oregon head to head -- are unranked.
Boise State checks in at No. 25, a small not to the Group of 6. Only, there are four one-loss teams outside the Power 4, and the Broncos were the lone representative. From 2014 through last year, an average of 2.3 Group of 5 teams finished ranked in the committee's final poll. Do we really think there's any chance a second team outside the power conferences will get a bid to the 24-team playoff?
No, we've not reached the age of enlightenment for the College Football Playoff. We've reached peak outrage. Because if you're upset about how the committee did its job this week -- just wait until this time next year, when an SEC team with four good losses is politicking for its spot, and a handful of teams from the Group of 6 are wondering what makes Iowa so special to jump them all.
On to this week's Anger Index.
1. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-1, No. 11)
Somewhere, Pete Bevacqua is waking up in a cold sweat, like a fragile, damaged survivor of a horror movie, and realizing it's all happening again. Welcome to the sequel. The Committee Lives, and it's out for more blood from Notre Dame!
Let's do a quick around-the-horn on what folks think of the Irish this year. The AP poll has Notre Dame checking in at No. 4. The coaches -- or at least the poor SIDs who have to fill in their ballots for them -- have the Irish at No. 6. ESPN's FPI metric ranks Notre Dame No. 1 in the land, and if you prefer some different algorithms, Sagarin agrees, and SP+ only dings them down to No. 3.
Notre Dame has a far more impressive win over Wisconsin than No. 8 UCLA does.
Notre Dame has a more impressive win over unranked but frisky North Carolina than No. 1 Miami does.
Notre Dame lost on the road to No. 9 BYU in a game that came down to a final throw into the end zone that should've been flagged for pass interference but wasn't. And as if that's not enough, there should've been 1 second left on the clock -- enough time for the Irish to take another shot at a touchdown and the win, but the officials flubbed that, too.
And this is the truly horrifying part for Notre Dame. Last year, the committee was happy to pretend a head-to-head loss to Miami didn't matter until the final ranking, when they yanked the carpet out from under the Irish. This year, they're going in the opposite direction, insisting on keeping Notre Dame behind BYU because of what happened on the field. And that would be fine if BYU hadn't slipped on a banana peel and lost to UCF the next week. Now the Cougars can't possibly be a top-five team with such an ugly loss ... so they're at No. 9. And while Notre Dame is clearly one of the handful of best teams in the country, they have to be behind BYU because they lost head to head. So, here the Irish are, all the way down at No. 11.
Think about it. In last year's first set of rankings, 6-2 Notre Dame was ranked No. 10 -- eight spots higher than a team it lost to that had the same record. This year, 7-1 Notre Dame is ranked No. 11 -- two spots behind a team it might well have beaten had the officials not had an early dinner reservation.
There's surely a thought in the committee room that, if Notre Dame beats Miami this week in South Bend, the whole thing will be turned on its head when the new rankings come out. But -- what if Notre Dame doesn't win? What if the Irish fall in a nail-biter, perhaps with another fluky ending sending the Canes off with a W? Well, that should just about do it for Notre Dame's playoff hopes, right?
So that's the high-wire act the committee has assigned Notre Dame with these rankings. Last year, the Irish soared on the strength of the eye test. This year, well, they just don't have enough quality losses.
2. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (7-1, No. 16)
The only thing more prevalent than texts and emails asking for donations to various Senate campaigns for the last year has been the SEC's quest to get the committee to value strength of schedule above all else. Who a team plays moves the needle. How a team plays isn't even worth reporting in the box score. And clearly, the committee has listened.
That's why six two-loss teams are ahead of Wake Forest.
That's why Georgia (with a loss to unranked Auburn), BYU (with a loss to unranked UCF) and Texas Tech (with a loss to unranked Cincinnati) all can have the same record as Wake Forest and be ranked higher.
No, the Deacons' schedule has not been fraught with one SEC behemoth after another. But here's what Wake has done: Won five straight. Won its past four by a combined margin of 187-31. Leads the nation in explosive play rate differential. Ranks 11th in FPI, ahead of BYU, Tennessee and UCLA, among others. Ranks 11th in strength of record (which, by the way, considers strength of schedule), ahead of BYU, Notre Dame, Tennessee and LSU. And when Wake took on No. 1 Miami, it struggled early, but ended up giving the Canes a game.
Of course, maybe if Louisville -- with the same record as South Carolina and Florida, whose three losses all came by 3 points -- had been ranked, this would be different. After all, Wake only beat the Cards by 3. Surely if a top-10 team from the SEC had played Louisville, it would've won by much more.
3. UCLA Bruins (8-0, No. 8)
Here's one of those deep-dive stats it's probably not entirely fair to expect the committee to have at its fingertips, but nevertheless seems relevant. So far this season, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky and Texas -- all ranked higher than UCLA -- have lost at least one game. UCLA has -- hang on, let's let Claude finish running this calculation, OK, here it is -- no losses!
Now, that might've been a lot to take in, so let's try to simplify it a bit.
Texas -- the team ranked one spot ahead of UCLA -- has two losses.
UCLA -- the team ranked one spot behind Texas -- has zero losses.
Zero is less than two. Actually, it's two less than two, believe it or not.
The last time the committee so obviously discounted an undefeated start to the season came two years ago with Indiana, and thankfully that was the last we ever heard of the Hoosiers.
4. Missouri Tigers (6-2, No. 18)
The SEC is a grab bag of one-, two- and three-loss teams all vying for spots in the rankings. Alabama destroyed Kentucky by 28, but lost to Tennessee, who lost to South Carolina, who lost to Kentucky. Florida beat Ole Miss. Missouri beat Florida. Ole Miss beat Missouri. Georgia lost to Auburn which lost to LSU which lost to Ole Miss which lost to Texas which lost to Florida which lost badly to ... Georgia. Sorting out who should be where is a fool's errand. Lucky, instead of fools we have a committee, and that committee has decided that, of all the two-loss SEC schools, Missouri is the least impressive.
Here's the thing though: If Missouri had managed to catch Mississippi State a week after Kamario Taylor got hurt rather than a week before, its résumé would look an awful lot like Kentucky's, and it's already on par with or better than LSU or Tennessee.
5. USC Trojans (6-2, No. 20)
Step into our time machine for a moment and let's travel all the way back to ... Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. Things were much different back then. It got dark an hour later. A cadre of celebrities hadn't needed to issue public apologies for their Halloween costumes. Mike Norvell had a job. Simpler times.
But also, another thing happened that day: USC dominated Ohio State 38-18. Obviously, some committee members were out trick-or-treating, so they must've missed that final score. How else to explain having the Buckeyes ranked No. 12 and the Trojans at No. 20 -- despite having the same record? Oh sure, we know Ohio State didn't have its QB. But that only matters for ACC teams in Florida. And, sure, USC has a head-to-head win, but another ACC team from Florida proved last year that doesn't actually have to matter until the last rankings. And, yes, we know that if Julian Sayin had been healthy, he surely would've suited up on defense and stopped USC from scoring all those points, too. The good news is, Lincoln Riley is motivated by internal joy, not external committee rankings.
Also angry: UTSA Roadrunners (7-1, unranked); Louisville Cardinals (5-3, unranked); BYU Cougars (couldn't the Big 12 officials have stepped in to rectify this No. 9 ranking?); Lane Kiffin (LSU is at No. 14 thanks to not being allowed to use pro players)