By: Charlie Moon

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

I have to say. I was searching a little for a column topic. But this one, it is about as easy as somebody trying to get me to eat a slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza. Yeah, if you’re reading this and you know me, then you know. I had bariatric sleeve surgery in late September.

“Moon, thought you couldn’t eat pizza anymore!” And I say…. “Shhhhhh, don’t tell the doc!”

In all seriousness, I can still eat pizza. But – only a couple bites here and there.

Back to the lecture at hand…..the ease of choosing the column topic. What I saw last on ESPN’s College Football Playoff Rankings Show, was about as intellectually rewarding as blowing dandelions on a hot summer night. Who knows, maybe some scientist can argue that blowing dandelions actually do open the brainwaves a little.

You know, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, no matter the industry. Usually, when our government makes decisions we don’t get, I often give them the nod.

My best example is: 3rd and 1, and the offense runs a simple off tackle and gets stuffed for a 2-yard loss. What happens? Armchair quarterbacks start yelling, “What was that?” “What kind of play call was that?”

But not this time!!

Look, when I watched Warde Manuel give word salad on Tuesday night’s show, I nearly had to go stand on my front porch to ensure our house had not been lifted into some 3rd dimension.

Warde Manuel is the current 8-year Michigan Athletic Director. He grew up in Michigan. He played football at Michigan under the great Bo Shembechler. Look, I’m sure he’s a great guy and a great family man….all of that. But there is absolutely no way a sitting athletic director can serve on the 12-person playoff committee that selects the 12-team playoff field.

When I did a little research, I was at Wild Wing Cafe in Statesboro. I nearly spit out the drink I was in the middle of. FIVE…. Count ‘em FIVE…. of the 12 members are either current NCAA athletic directors or are high-ranking officials in those athletic departments.

We’ve always known these playoff committees have members of current athletic departments, but to see that they constituted almost half of this year’s committee, was shocking.

I’m not going to dole out names, or give out their addresses like some of our national leaders do. But, I will criticize the committee and its member selection.

Normally, not much attention should be paid to the CFP  rankings yet. But the problem is hearing their thoughts and how they rank teams.

When Warde Manuel explained why UGA was where they were and Texas was where they were, I was dumbfounded.

He said, “Yes they beat Texas. But their body of work – we just felt like 10 was the right spot.”

Ummmm…..wrong. UGA has more top 25 wins than the 2nd-6th ranked teams combined. Sure, the Dawgs got hammered by Ole Miss, but their strength of schedule is #1. The message being sent is for teams to play no one.

Look, we could argue all day long about who should be where, but there is one thing that should not be up for debate. There is no way that current school officials should be a part of selecting the teams. I’m sure they try as hard as they can to be unbiased, but human nature is what it is.

There’s no coincidence Manuel is a Big Ten guy and 4 of the top 5 teams are Big Ten. I’m not saying it “just because,” but again. The Dawgs have more top 25 wins than Ohio St, Indiana and Penn St combined.

I’ll just wrap it up this way. Let’s go back to the computers – honestly!