CFCC Week 12 The "Eyes" Don't Have It

by: The Cold Hard Truth

Currently Michael Boyer of West Hills, California leads the competition after a stellar 54 point, 10-5 effort in Week 12. However, I am going to proclaim that Hank Bauer, our CFCC leader last week, is still in first place. Don't worry about the numbers. I saw him in Week 11 and one other time earlier in the year I saw him score 110 points. He is clearly #1. I used the "Eye Test" to determine that, and as all of you know, the "Eye Test" is the very best predictor of who is best. Sounds a little crazy - right?

Before this season started, I was excited about the college football playoff. All the politics would be eliminated and we can have a fair and just national championship. Then one day I was watching tv and I heard a commentator say how thankful he was that "we have experts on that committee who can correct what the computers determine." It was at that moment that I knew nothing had changed. I don't know why I thought that the new system would work differently. Afterall, the big boys of college football would never have agreed to this new system if there was any chance that TCU would play Marshall for the national title.

Just using the term "Eye Test" should indicate something is amiss with the system. With every eye test, there are things that appear blurry or simply can't be seen. Why not just call it the "microscope test" or the "corrected lense test". If only we had some tool at our fingertips that would provide a clear picture and give us the real answer. Guess what? We have that. They are called computer rankings.

If I had it my way, instead of Condalisa Rice, famous football fan, and Pat Haden,USC Athletics Director(no bias there), I would be picking some computers for that committee. How about Colossus from the 1970 movie Colossus: The Forbin Project? I never saw the movie, but apparently this computer took control of the world in less than two hours. It can surely handle determining a few college football rankings. What about HAL 9000? Sure, HAL was a little angry in 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, I think he could be quite effective if just given another chance in 2014: A Football Odyssey. I would drop the human component in this case. It doesn't always work, but in this case, we are the flaw in this system.

Apparently, the "Eye Test" now says Alabama is now worthy of the playoff. Did you see the 59-0 victory over Texas A&M? Yes, the Aggies are a very good high school team. However, did you also see Alabama's 14-13 victory over Arkansas, where the Tide had 10 first downs and 227 total yards? Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. How about the LSU game where the Tigers had the game won and choked it away? Apparently, the experts had their eyes closed for those two games. That's the problem. It's selective attention. We see what we want to see. Some teams get extra chances. Every year we have to endure discussions about Notre Dame, USC, Oklahoma, and Ohio State. Urban Meyer? Hardly - more like Urban Legend. Every year they are back baby! We use the "Eye Test" for one week and they are national champs. ...or, they lose early in the year and then win a few games at the end of the year against minimal competition and they are somehow back again. It takes three losses for these teams to be put back in their place. Prior to last week, I actually heard people saying Florida would win the SEC East. Really? I am glad we put that to rest. We humans are influenced by outside factors that flaw the system. If only we had a tool...

Whenever I am feeling a little down about my team being overrun by the biases within college football, I go to the one oasis of truth in this sport. I do a search for college football computer rankings on Google and head to masseyratings.com. There I can look at all 70 computer rankings and see the composite ranking for each team. I can look at my favorite team and pick the highest rating as being the truth for my team. Before all you Alabama fans get bent out of shape, Yes, I know you're #1 in the computer rankings. However, you actually earned it this year. You didn't have to rely on false praise to get your ranking like you did last year, and maybe we won't have to watch you laying another egg against an overranked OU team again. Everyone looked at that Sugar Bowl game and thought the Sooners would be good this year. We know how that one has worked out too - yikes! ...so take a look at that site. It tells me that TCU is a better team than Baylor. Both Mississippi schools do deserve a shot at the playoff, and it tells me that Florida State is truly a pretender. Finally, let's tip our hats to the coach of the year in college football, John Holliday. He's the coach for the Marhsall Thundering Herd. He's not coach of the year for going undefeated. He's my coach of the year for not complaining about the politics that will eventually cheat his team out of a chance to win the title. Marshall - #2 in the Baker-Bradley Terry and Quazzum polls!

What a week in the CFCC! In a week where the average score was just a hair over 10, Todd Hamill from Tyrone, Georgia delivered a 12-3 performance for a cool 76 trombones! He's up 112 spots to #176. Surprisingly, that wasn't the biggest move of the week. Victor Murphy was up 115 spots to #95 while F Kluck jumped 114 places to #104. Both of these guys scored 60 points during this very difficult week. In the group competition, "HookemHorns" is in the top spot, followed by perennial powers "The Spectacular Florida Dummies" and "Shake&Bake".