Week 13 - Prelude to (Conference) Championships

Sorry about last week.  But ultimately it was for the best, as it gave a couple weeks for things at the top to settle. 

The Internet ranks Clemson and Notre Dame ahead of Alabama, but it's pretty close.  Basically the difference is quality of opponents is the determining factor.  Oh sure, the standard SEC Wank conventional wisdom tries to argue that Alabama's strength of schedule has been so much better, but while it's very close, the numbers do at this time favor other schools, and based off the arguments that their fans have been posting for years. 

I do not expect things to stay this way.  I pressured The Interent to dispense with the ties and to do some firm rankings this week, and it obliged.  There are a few surprises.  Despite The Interenet's normal metrics having the team around the 7th slot, The Internet went ahead and ranked the team 5th.  This is based on a strong Elo.   UCF, a normal darling of The Internet, received no benefit of the doubt, due to the team's quarterback issue calling their team's forward progress into question.

Ultimately, while these rankings are interesting, the conference championships are going to end up ultimately determine how these teams rank going into the playoffs, and then into bowl week.  It should be interesting to see how it all shakes out this week.

Here are the ranks for posterity: