Rankings of UCLA Football and USC show selection committee is flawed

The College Football Playoff selection committee didn’t receive much criticism from its latest rankings release but UCLA football has a legitimate gripe. 

There’s no doubt that the current system of the College Football Playoff is better than anything we have had before.

Whether it was the bowl coalition, the bowl alliance, or the BCS, nothing has worked as well as the College Football Playoff where things are mostly decided on the field.

The four teams generally make the field, although there has been some debate over the years. The real issue is that it’s not the best four teams, it’s the teams with the best four resumes.

The selection committee likes to talk about the eye test and all of this stuff but if you look at all their reasoning, there is zero reason that UCLA football ( No. 12) should be ranked behind USC (8th).

The selection committee has no consistency

The Trojans have been good and have only lost one game — a road game against Utah. But the Trojans don’t have any top-25 wins and struggled to beat both Oregon State.

USC has won every game this season and all of the wins have been double-digit wins by at least 16 points. But the Trojans haven’t beaten any ranked teams while UCLA beat Utah — the team that beat USC — and also Washington, which is also ranked.

You can argue about USC losing the game on the road, while UCLA football won at home, but that’s the way the schedule works. The Bruins had a close call against South Alabama and lost by 16 at Oregon, but it has won every other game by at least eight.

UCLA football also controlled things for the most part in both of its ranked victories. The two teams will play in a couple of weeks so it’s kind of a moot point. But as Joel Klatt said this week on his Podcast, it’s another reason to doubt the committee.

Both teams have played really well and have one loss. If the reason for Alabama and LSU to be ranked ahead of one-loss teams, as a two-loss team is quality wins, why doesn’t that matter for UCLA?

Why aren’t the Bruins ranked eighth instead of USC?

It seems like the committee is still biased toward the big-name schools and is ranking teams based on who they think would win games, instead of knowing.

That’s why we need a 12-team college football playoff. This debate will be settled on the field but too many aren’t. That’s why the College Football Playoff should be expanded and why there need to be automatic berths because right now, the process is too subjective.