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THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: College Football Playoff rankings: We've got a word for that

| November 5, 2021 1:20 AM

Perhaps you’re a fan of “Pardon the Interruption.”

If not, you should be.

On TV and via podcast, longtime sports reporters (some would say humorists) Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon discuss and argue about the hot topics of the day — and manage to hit all the right spots in just a half-hour.

Tony and Mike have a lot of regular gigs on the show, but one in particular has meaning for us today.

It’s the challenge to sum up one event, rumor or whatever into a single word.

For instance: “Michigan’s loss to Michigan State was WHAT for Jim Harbaugh?”

(I’d be tempted to say “yawn” if given the same choice.)

Anyway, these two bright guys can be accurate and still have a lot of fun with a format like that.

And they do.

But today, I’m going to butt into their show and sum up a major sports item in one word.

Go ahead, ask me the right question …

“The first College Football Playoff rankings were WHAT?”

Wait!

I want a choice between two words.

“Disgraceful,” or maybe just …

“Fraud.”

WE SHOULD have seen this coming.

The CFP committee has a simple job: It must whore for ESPN and some key money sponsors, while still having some plausible (weak as hell, but kind of plausible) argument for its choices.

Did I mention these characters have to tickle the SEC’s tummy, too?

Job No. 1 for the committee, regardless of records, is to wedge two SEC teams into its final four.

Normally, that would be Alabama and Someone Not Alabama — but this year the Tide already have lost to a blah Texas A&M team.

There is, of course, the scenario that Alabama wins its division, beats top-ranked Georgia in the SEC title game, and might legitimately claim to be No. 1.

But I’m waiting for ‘Bama to LOSE that game and, yes …

Somehow, the committee makes the case that the Tide remain one of the best four teams in the country.

Meanwhile, talk to me about Cincinnati.

This is a truly good football team, with a marquee nonconference win (at No. 10 Notre Dame), and nothing close to a loss.

Power conference gurus tell us that Cincinnati can’t really compete with the best in the SEC — but in last year’s Peach Bowl, Cincinnati played Georgia (with most of the athletes who are now No. 1 in the country) right to the wire.

What’s really disgusting — one of my words to describe all this — is that the committee did a clever job of setting up its first top four so that the teams it wants eventually will land in the playoffs.

Michigan State at No. 3?

Perfect.

Sparty still has play at (and presumably lose to) Ohio State, and the network — along with all those money people -- really want the Buckeyes to jump over Michigan State.

THE GAME that put the committee in a bit of a bind was Oregon’s victory over Ohio State in Columbus to open the season.

The Ducks weren’t even at full strength.

No matter how you’re trying to cheat logic and game the system, you can’t put the Buckeyes ahead of Oregon if they’re both one-loss teams at the end of the day.

This whole thing is a fraud, sure, but THAT …?

A bridge too far.

The Ducks are in the enviable position of being certain they’ll make the field of four if they can merely win out.

But …

So is Ohio State.

It’s going to set up this way if the Buckeyes run the table: The SEC winner will No. 1, now and forever.

Then the SEC runner-up, along with Oregon and Ohio State, will fall into place — in some order.

The committee will get the glamor teams it wants, and as a bonus, it can claim that the Pac-12 isn’t being ignored (even though they wish they could do it).

Cincinnati gets hosed, naturally, unless there are so many upsets that we lose count.

The only fun thing about this deal being fixed already is that Oklahoma can go undefeated and still get left outside parking cars.

The committee is betting that the Sooners won’t pull it off, and now they’re so far down the road with the SEC, the Big Ten and Oregon that there might not be a way out.

Wouldn’t that be lovely?

This whole thing is a con game, set up solely to pump money toward the SEC and ESPN.

Fraudulent, as was suggested earlier.

But what else is new?

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.