2014 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Week 6 Edition

Finally! I get to play around with brackets!

With the results of Week 6 of the college football season in the books, I finally have the nation whittled down enough that I can build a bracket and not exclude any undefeated teams. Of course, of the ten that remain, at least half will not remain that way.

So in case you need a refresher into how the Death to the BCS Playoffs work, sixteen teams out of the 128 who play FBS-level football make the final field. The champions of all ten conferences make the field automatically, while the remaining spots are filled on an at-large basis. These sixteen teams are then seeded for the purpose of deciding home-field advantage. Obviously, this places a priority on winning your non-conference games in addition to doing well in your league.

The seeding process is somewhat subjective, since I'm deciding this process on my own, though I will take input from readers on how they think the field should be set up. For my role though, I use the stats outlined in the link above. I will use the NCSS rankings I've been compiling for the last month and a half to some degree, though Playoff Points will carry a little more weight. I will also use a couple computer rankings that the BCS deemed unnecessary because they factor in margin of victory. The late David Rothman and Jeff Sagarin both used rankings like this. Currently, the formula Rothman compiled hasn't been applied to the 2014 season yet, though Sagarin has been updating his numbers weekly. These will be combined together in an attempt to rank these teams with as little bias as possible. These rankings are abbreviated below as such: NCSS stands for Non-Conference schedule strength, PP1 and PP2 are First and Second Degree Playoff Points, respectively, while SAG is Sagarin's ranking for each team.

Since none of the conferences have officially been won, the conference "championships" are going to the teams with the in-conference record in each league. This will hopefully explain some of the "Huh?!" teams that will show up (and trust me, there's one that amazed even me). So, without further ado, here's the first edition of the Death to the BCS Playoff bracket.

1. Auburn (5-0, SEC "Champion"): NCSS- 5, PP1- 16, PP2- 5.2, SAG- 1
2. Ole Miss (5-0, At Large): NCSS- 3, PP1- 14, PP2- 5.4, SAG- 3
3. Mississippi State (5-0, At Large): NCSS- 4, PP1- 17, PP2- 4, SAG- 8
4. Florida State (5-0, ACC "Champion"): NCSS- 1, PP1- 13, PP2- 4.2, SAG- 13
5. Arizona (5-0, Pac 12 "Champion"): NCSS- 4, PP1- 13, PP2- 4.4, SAG- 31
6. Notre Dame (5-0, At Large): NCSS- 9, PP1- 12, PP2- 3.8, SAG- 9
7. Georgia Tech (5-0, At Large): NCSS- 2, PP1- 12, PP2- 4.2, SAG- 44
8. Marshall (5-0, At Large): NCSS- 4, PP1- 10, PP2- 1.4, SAG- 37
9. Baylor (5-0, Big 12 "Champion"): NCSS- 2, PP1- 6, PP2- 1.8, SAG- 5
10. TCU (4-0, At Large): NCSS- 3, PP1- 8, PP2- 4.25, SAG- 7
11. Northwestern (3-2, Big 10 "Champion"): NCSS- 2, PP1- 7, PP2- 5.3, SAG- 41 
    
12. East Carolina (4-1, American Athletic "Champion"): NCSS- 7, PP1- 6, PP2- 2.5, SAG- 42
13. Middle Tennessee (4-2, Conference USA "Champion): NCSS- 4, PP1- 7, PP2- 3, SAG- 96
14. Georgia Southern (4-2, Sun Belt "Champion"): NCSS- 5, PP1- 6, PP2- 0.5, SAG- 73
15. Toledo (4-2, MAC "Champion"): NCSS- 3, PP1- 6, PP2- 1.5, SAG- 75
16. Fresno State (3-3, Mountain West "Champion"): NCSS- 4, PP1- 4, PP2- 1.3, SAG- 83

Photo from Getty Images

Truth be told: this was not easy to seed. Originally, I had Ole Miss and Mississippi State flipped, but the Sagarin ranking solidified this version. Florida State/Arizona and Notre Dame/Georgia Tech also saw these flips.

I wanted to make sure that all the undefeated teams made the top ten, and made an effort to keep the conference "champions" ahead of at large teams from the same conferences. Conference USA was the exception, since Middle Tennessee has the best C-USA record, but Marshall is undefeated.

Photo by M. P. King (Wisconsin State Journal)

Also keep in mind: most of these conference champions will change between now and December. I doubt Northwestern makes the Death to the BCS Playoffs (though their computer ranking was higher than I expected), but they're the only team that's 2-0 in B1G play. Odds are, we'll see someone like Michigan State end up taking that spot. The SEC will probably get a couple at large bids in again too, though if the Mississippi schools take those has yet to be seen. I also doubt Conference USA will get two teams in. Even though with this system I strive to give every team a chance to play for a title, the better numbers almost always belong to teams from the Power conferences.

The most important thing about this field is that if you're a fan of a team that didn't make this field and you want to complain? Your team already lost a game. Tough luck. This isn't the final version though, so that excuse won't fly going forward, meaning I'll need to make some tough cuts in future brackets. Then you might see some right to complain.

The idea behind this would be that the teams I put in the Top Four would make the College Football Playoff. This week is probably an exception, as there's no way I'd put three SEC teams in a four-team playoff. This is why four teams isn't good enough. Were I forced to go with a four-team bracket... give me Auburn, Arizona, Florida State... and Notre Dame. Maybe one of the Mississippi schools. I don't know.

I'll link this post to the COAS Tournaments page, where you can refer back to all of this season's ranking posts, plus rankings and results from prior seasons.