Why is Alabama ranked higher than Michigan State in college football polls?
Last week I explained how your opinion no longer matters in college football. I told you how the polls are basically an extension of your personal, biased opinions and how great it was that those polls will no longer be used to help decide a national champion in the sport.
This week I’m showing you exactly why that is a good thing.
After a wild and crazy weekend of college football, the AP and coaches polls were released. In both polls, Alabama is ranked No. 7, while Michigan State is ranked No. 8. No big deal, right?
Actually, if you take the time to peel back the layers of those two teams, even going back to last season, you’d see that the putting the Crimson Tide ahead of the Spartans just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Let’s start with the preseason polls. To open up the year, Alabama was ranked No. 2 in both polls, while Michigan State was ranked No. 8 by the AP and No. 6 by the coaches. Preseason polls, whether or not anyone comes right out and admits it, are part how you finished last year and part how the voters think you’ll do this year based on what you have returning.
Looking at how Alabama ended the season — with two straight losses — you’d think they’d be trending down. Then add to that the fact that 16 players from that team left the school (some graduated) and entered the NFL Draft. This includes their quarterback who had started for three years. Despite this, voters in both the AP and coaches polls decided they were still the second best team in the country heading into the 2014 season.
Now let’s look at how Michigan State finished. After losing to Notre Dame in the third week of September, the Spartans ran off ten straight wins to end the season, including back-to-back wins over top five teams in their last two games. They then lost some key contributors to their defense to graduation and the draft — notably Max Bullough and Darqueze Dennard. In all, eleven Spartans entered the NFL Draft.
The Spartans did, however, return their starting quarterback, leading rusher and second leading receiver. They brought back a starting offensive line of five letter winners and All-American caliber players at all three levels of the defense.
Given all of this, what business did Alabama having being ranked ahead of Michigan State to start the season?
As 2014 kicked off, Michigan State was already in a hole, thanks to the voters in the polls. A week two loss at Oregon dug that whole a little deeper, dropping the Spartans to No. 13 in both polls. Curiously, Oregon’s win over Michigan State was enough to leapfrog the Ducks over Alabama to the No. 2 spot in both polls without Alabama losing.
As the next month played out, Michigan State kept winning while other top ten programs lost, helping the Spartans climb back into the top ten heading into this past weekend. Michigan State entered the week at No. 10 in both polls, while Alabama was No. 3 in the AP and — here’s that word again — curiously No. 1 in the coaches poll.
As we all know, No. 11 Ole Miss knocked off Alabama in a game that really wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Alabama returned a fumble for a touchdown at the end of the first half on a play that never should have been, as a blatant facemask penalty was never called. The Rebels were still able to win by six. Take away that fumble recovery and the Tide should have lost by two scores.
Later that night, Michigan State beat a Nebraska team (No. 19 in the AP, 17 in the coaches poll) in a game that also wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. The Spartans dominated the Huskers for three quarters before Nebraska made a late run in the fourth quarter on the back of a punt return for a touchdown. The Spartans held on for what you thought was a quality win.
The next day, the voters said otherwise. Ole Miss leapfrogged Michigan State, jumping from No. 11 in both polls to No. 3 in the AP and No. 4 in the coaches. That raises a bunch of questions — most notably why the Rebels didn’t get ranked higher in the coaches poll when Alabama was the No. 1 team and only No. 3 in the AP.
As far as Michigan State and Alabama, the Tide lost its third game in seven tries going back to the end of the 2013 season. The Spartans won their sixth game in the same about of time and their third over a ranked opponent. Alabama’s four wins in that span came over West Virginia, Florida Atlantic, Southern Mississippi and Florida. Michigan State’s six wins in the same period came over Ohio State, Stanford, Nebraska, Jacksonville State, Eastern Michigan and Wyoming.
The evidence shows, going back to the end of the 2013 campaign and into the first half of 2014, that Michigan State clearly has the stronger body of work and the record to prove it. Nevertheless, the voters in both the AP and coaches polls somehow decided that the Alabama Crimson Tide are the better team right now.
Does anyone want to tell me why it wasn’t a good idea to eliminate these two polls from having any weight in deciding the national champion? I’m all ears.
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