The Logic 25

It’s obvious the BCS is flawed, so I’ve gone to the liberty of compiling my own list of college football’s best and call it the "logic 25".

It’s a, well, logical approach, which generally works pretty well... head-to-head wins take precedent, if you beat good teams you get credit, if you lose to good teams you don’t necessarily lose credit, and I don’t care what the results of the other games were, home or away, or how close the wins are… wins are wins. With that in mind I’ve compiled 31 teams that deserve some notice… it’s the BCS 25 plus Clemson, Washington State, Penn State, Hawaii, BYU and Nebraska. From these teams I’ve developed a top 25 that does its best to factor in head-to-head wins against other top 25 teams, ie Arkansas beat Auburn, thus should be better than Auburn, Auburn beat Florida, etc. However, this is impossible when Arkansas loses to USC who loses to Oregon State who loses to 3 other top 25 teams and there is also the issue of the undefeated teams and the teams that have lost to the same team… in these cases, I admit, the BCS ratings get some weight.

To do this I’ve built some groups and then tried to merge the groups together.

Group 1: the undefeateds
Group 2: one loss to the undefeateds (Texas, Notre Dame, West VA and Wisconsin) and Penn State (losses only in group 1 & 2)
Group 3: The SECs, USC, Cal (loss to Tennessee), Nebraska & Hawaii
Group 4: The ACC and BYU
Group 5: The Oregons, Washington State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma

Group 1: Michigan, Ohio State, Louisville, Boise State and Rutgers. Michigan deserves to be ranked higher than Ohio State having 2 wins (Notre Dame and Wisconsin) against my top 25 where Ohio State and Louisville only have one (Texas and West Virginia, respectively), but thank God OSU and Michigan will settle this on the field. Boise State has beaten Oregon State and Hawaii so they take a step ahead of Rutgers.Rutgers is last here because they haven’t beaten anyone of note yet and I expect they lose to Louisville on Thursday.

Group 2: Notre Dame, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Penn State. The choice of Michigan at #1 influences Notre Dame over Texas, plus Notre Dame gets a little extra credit for beating GA Tech and Penn State against Texas' wins over OU and Nebraska. While each of the first three has beaten a top 25, the fact remains that the Badgers and Penn State haven’t beaten anyone. Who’s to say Penn State isn’t the 16th best team in the nation though? They’ve lost to Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame and #15 Wisconsin!

Group 3: Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, USC, LSU, Tennessee, Cal, Hawaii, Nebraska. The first tricky group thanks to USC’s loss to Oregon State. USC gets credit for beating 2 top 25s though and is placed ahead of LSU and Tennessee which have only beaten one top 25. This one is otherwise based on head to heads. Arkansas beat Auburn, Auburn beat Florida, Auburn and Florida beat LSU, LSU beat Tennessee and Tennessee beat Cal. Cal has 3 wins against top 25 teams, but they’re all in the Pac-10 and the loss to Tennessee shows me how tough the SEC is. Hawaii’s tossed in here for losing to Alabama (and Boise State) thus making them generally inferior to the rest of the SEC and Nebraska lost to USC (plus two others) so they pick up the rear.

Group 4: Wake Forest, GA Tech, Boston College, Maryland, VA Tech, Clemson, BYU. Clemson really tosses in a wrench here. They beat Wake Forest and GA Tech, but lost to BC, Maryland and VA Tech. Boston College adds the first loss to a team not in my top 31 – NC State – but they’ve beaten VA Tech, Clemson and BYU so they get a slight nod over Maryland.

Group 5: Washington State, Oregon State, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas A&M. Tough to stick to Washington State with 4 losses, but how much do you punish for losses to Auburn, USC and Cal? Besides, they beat both Oregons so they get the nod. Oregon State beat USC, so Oregon State gets the nod over Oregon despite the extra loss to Boise State. We all know the Oregon-Oklahoma story, which really hurts OU in this ranking system. Finally, OU beat A&M.

Combining the groups : The groups remained fairly in tact. Group 1 is spread out more than others because one wonders how good is a Rutgers team who hasn’t won or lost to anyone? Boise State’s knocked off Oregon State so they could be anywhere in the top 25 really. In the end I figure these teams are middle of the pack and straddle Wisconsin and their one loss to Michigan. Group 2 is tight at the top, but Penn State hasn’t beaten anyone so they fall out of the top 25 with their 4 losses. Group 3 is the next batch, except Nebraska and Hawaii that get moved out of the top 25. Following the BS, Wisconsin and Rutgers heap comes Group 4, sans BYU, and Group 5, sans A&M.´

Thus, my logic 25 looks like this:

1. Michgan(BCS: 2)
2. Ohio State (1)
3. Louisville (3)
4. Notre Dame (5)
5. Texas (9)
6. West Virginia (10)
7. Arkansas (11)
8. Auburn (6)
9. Florida (4)
10. USC (7)
11. LSU (12)
12. Tennessee (16)
13. California (8)
14. Boise State (14)
15. Wisconsin (15)
16. Rutgers (13)
17. Wake Forest (19)
18. Georgia Tech (18)
19. Boston College (22)
20. Maryland (23)
21. Virginia Tech (21)
22. Clemson (NR)
23. Washington State (NR)
24. Oregon State (24)
25. Oregon (20)

Others: Oklahoma (17), Penn State (NR), Texas A&M (25), Hawaii (NR), BYU (NR), Nebraska (NR)