By: Charlie Moon

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

You’re going to Golden Corral (or your favorite buffet spot). You got it all planned out.

“Imma get some BBQ…. some mac-n-cheese… some of that steak with rice-n-gravy. Then,  some of those collard greens….and those yeast rolls!”

You haven’t eaten in 24 hours. Yeast rolls been dancing in your head all day at work. You pay at the register. You got that sly grin and a bounce in your step.

You walk to the buffet and start looking down and around. Suddenly, “I don’t know what to get first.”

You start piling up stuff. By the time you get to the bottom, half of it is cold. You get more. You finish. You walk out.

“Mannnn…..I don’t know. Nothing was great. It was all just kind of okay.”

I can’t help but think the first year of this new 12-team playoff is the same,  just a pile of really good teams. When you stack it all up, nobody can tell the difference.

#1 Oregon is undefeated, but they’ve only played two ranked teams, Ohio St and a fading Illinois team.

#3 Penn State is just 1-1 after only playing two ranked teams.

#9 SMU has only played two ranked teams.

Look at blind resumes. Take off the helmet. Don’t watch the games. Just look at the schedule difficulties and how teams have fared.

What have they proven?

If you do that, the top 3 resumes in college football, in no certain order, are Texas, UGA and the University of South Carolina.

Skeerrrr…..(insert brake sound here). Yeah, that’s right. If you only look at the resumes and what the teams have proven, you simply cannot make an argument otherwise. You just can’t. You can try, but those arguments would not be meaningful.

Against ranked teams…. Texas (4-1), UGA (3-2, including three top 10 wins) and South Carolina (4-3, including an LSU loss with a horrendous game-changing call).

Don’t come at me with “They beat them by…. They lost to…..” Whatever.

And between all three, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina have ZERO losses against unranked teams.

I’m sorry. I get it. Teams can’t be totally blamed for their schedules. But I think there needs to be a rule. If you haven’t played at least 3 ranked teams, then you shouldn’t be allowed in the top 8. You get no home playoff game or a 1st round bye.

Right now, if you forced Penn St, Oregon and Indiana to take a back seat and move to 9 through 12…or  worse, then you’d have a much more quality comparison of teams.

I would absolutely guarantee you South Carolina would be in, over an Indiana. Why?

Because their current ranking would be based off the idea of being undefeated or only having one loss.

Right now, if South Carolina played Penn State and Indiana on neutral fields, I guarantee you the Gamecocks would be at least a 4-point favorite. They might even be a 1 or 2-point favorite over Penn State, but no more than a field goal underdog.

I know, the elephant in the room. How would South Carolina be in over two teams it lost to? That argument is pointless based off the current system. Why?

Well, if Clemson beats SMU Saturday, they’ll be in over South Carolina, who it JUST lost to, at home.

To me, the bottom line is this. There will always be arguments about these last 3-4 teams getting in, but this is still so much better than the old system.

So, what’s the only way we can know who should be in? Teams like Oregon, Penn St and Indiana should no longer get passes, simply because they only have one loss or less, but have only played 1-3 ranked teams.

What have they proven? Easy….nothing.