COLUMN: Winning is Easy as 1,2...

Ask any coach in the nation if he/she would rather have a win or a take a loss over a quality opponent. I would imagine the results would be a landslide of a response; take the win. Now ask the same question to the College Football Playoff committee and the response may shock you. Suddenly, a quality loss seems to hold more stature in the eyes of the 12 member committee rather than a win.

Welcome to the confusion that is the College Football Playoffs where strength of schedule is important and winning is not everything. Just ask 8-0 Marshall football—who happens to be one of three undefeated teams in the nation—as the Thundering Herd finds itself ranked No. 23 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, No. 22 in the Amway Coaches Poll but remains unranked in the College Football Playoff Rankings.

Even the College Football Playoff Committee Chair Jeff Long appeared to have lost count on the number of undefeated teams in the nation when he addressed the media after the latest rankings were revealed.

“Certainly we talked about undefeated teams and as you know there are two,” Long said when asked of the value of being undefeated. However, Long found himself having to make an adjustment as he continued his remarks.

“Again we started back at the beginning, well there are three undefeated teams,” quickly corrected Long before continuing his statement.

So which team did he forget about? No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 2 Florida State or unranked Marshall, all of which are 8-0 this season.

“At this point we stop ranking at 25 because that’s our charge,” Long said of ranking teams outside of the Top 25 until a ranking is established for the top G5 school. “So we don’t rank beyond 25.”

Numbers do not lie but I will leave the decision to you the reader to decide which of the three Long forgot.

Welcome to the Power 5 country club where the invited are welcomed and the rest may look but not touch. This is the setting teams such as Marshall, Colorado State and Boise State currently find themselves a part of with no real explanation of where they stand against the nation, or one another, in sight anytime soon.

Still not convinced of the parity between the P5 and G5 schools? A simple break down of the new No. 24 team in the rankings Georgia Tech will surely clear this up. As a member of the powerful ACC, GT has played Wofford (Southern), Tulane (AAC) and Georgia Southern (Sun Belt) during its non-conference schedule. As a whole, the three teams are a combined 14-11 and none are a member 

of a P5 school. However, GT plays four non-conference games this season.

Who is the fourth? No. 20 Georgia (SEC).

“As I said last week, our meeting this week would begin with a clean sheet of paper and it did,” Long said of the latest rankings meeting.

Perhaps not completely clean as a 7-2 Georgia Tech appears to be receiving some credibility for the Georgia game that has yet to play. After all, Tech lost in back-to-back weeks to No. 22 Duke (7-1) and North Carolina (4-5). Georgia Tech’s overall conference schedule is 29-24 with four of its five opponents having losing records.

Did I mention that Georgia Tech received only 15 points in the AP Poll (29^th) and 32 in the Coaches Poll (28^th)? Marshall received 238 in the AP and 253 in the Coaches Poll while Colorado State earned 67 and 81 respectively.

But no worries, Georgia Tech is looked at as a member of the “country club” so of course a 7-2 ACC team looks much better than an 8-0 Marshall from CUSA or 8-1 Colorado State from Mountain West.

However, compare Georgia Tech’s non-conference strength of schedule thus far to that of Marshall and Colorado State and the numbers say different.

Tech’s non-conference average according to the Sagarin Ratings is a staggering 128.7 through three games. Marshall, who supposedly had a laugher of non-conference schedule, is 120 through its four non-conference games while Colorado State is a 73 although three of its four non-conference opponents have collectively won 4 games.

A message the G5 schools can take from this, stay off the lawn and do not get finger prints on the glass while looking in at “Big Boy” football.

So for future reference, do not schedule games that are inviting to your fan base or teams that perhaps were relevant when those schedules were created four or more years ago. Instead, schedule every non-conference game with teams that will provide a quality loss therefore beefing up the strength of schedule.

After all, winning is so easy in today’s game that college football has more undefeated teams than one can account for.

Just ask Jeff Long. It’s as easy as 1, 2...oh I forgot what comes next.