Jackson Free Press

The wait is over.

After years of widespread bellyaching about the BCS' flaws and a season full of suspense awaiting the weekly College Football Playoff committee rankings, the only item left on the to-do list of football pundits, amateur and professional, is to deconstruct the NCAA's first foray into a playoff-style offseason.

In the final ranking of college football's four best teams, Ohio State's Big 10 championship game win propelled them in, while TCU and Baylor's tie for first in the Big 12 was not enough. Many who take issue with the CFP ranking point to the exclusion of the Big 12 teams as its fatal flaw. The conference has only 10 members, not enough to meet the NCAA's threshold of 12 teams for a conference to hold a championship game. Still, the two Big 12 co-champions argue the CFP committee's charge to prize conference championships left them at an unfair disadvantage.

In an effort to right this wrong, the Big 12 purportedly will petition the NCAA for the right to stage a championship game in future seasons.

In addition to valuing conference championships, the CFP selection criteria emphasizes strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and comparative outcomes of common opponents, with the caveat that large margins of victory will not receive preference. The committee did not disclose any other metrics used, stating, "The committee will consider a wide variety of data and information."

A close examination of the final rankings suggests that over-emphasis by the committee of overall record places members of the SEC at a considerable disadvantage, especially the SEC West.

While many will continue to debate it, statistic after statistic demonstrates that the SEC West is the toughest place in America to play college football. Based on opponents' winning percentage, SEC West teams (Arkansas, Auburn and Ole Miss, respectively) played the three most difficult schedules in 2014, and the schedules of three other members of the division (Texas A&M, Alabama and LSU) ranked among the top 15.

All seven members—allow me to repeat that—every single team in the SEC West will play in a bowl game. No SEC West school lost a game to a non-conference opponent.

Much has been made of Florida State's undefeated record. For many, it was a foregone conclusion that if they remained unbeaten, they deserved to be ranked among the top four in the country. However, a blind analysis of the top six teams by Bleacher Report ranked Florida State fifth. In early conference play, when Ole Miss faced Alabama and Texas A&M, and Mississippi State contended with Auburn and the Aggies, the Seminoles executed routs of NC State, Wake Forest and Syracuse. Such is life for a member of the ACC.

The sophisticated and well-respected F+ ranking system, devised by ESPN writers Brian Fremeau and Bill Connelly to reward teams for good play against strong teams (regardless of outcome) and punish them for losses to poor teams, puts three SEC teams in the top 6 (Alabama, Ole Miss and Mississippi State), whereas the CFP committee only included Alabama.

This discrepancy demonstrates the CFP committee's overemphasis of overall record. Most experts should agree that playing well against good teams, despite losing the game by a little, says more about a team's talent, skill and mettle than a blowout of an unranked foe.

Week after week, members of the SEC West do just that. Even Arkansas, ranked last in the West, played every other member of its division tough. Besides its back-to-back shutouts of LSU and Ole Miss down the stretch, Arkansas nearly beat Alabama with a final score of 14-13.

The F+ system rewards the Razorbacks with a final ranking of No. 20 in the nation. Let that sink in. Considering strength of schedule without punishing teams for "good losses," a .500 Arkansas squad is the 20th best team in the country. When the Razorbacks meet Texas in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 29, expect them to win big. After all, F+ ranks Texas (also 6-6) 57th.

This season, the SEC was the power conference, and the SEC West its dominant division. Anyone who watched Alabama dismantle Missouri in the SEC Championship game understands the vast disparities in the conference's divisions.

While success breeds success (it's hard to imagine why a top recruit would turn down a scholarship offer to an SEC West schools come commitment season), it may not always be that way. Three seasons from now, a retooled Big 12 may emerge as the new dominant league, or perhaps the Pac-12. Regardless of who stands at the top, the CFP committee would do well to place less credence on a game's final score and more on how teams play the game.

Natalie Clericuzio is a Jackson native who recently returned after seven years in Houston. Natalie covered sports in Texas and loves following the ups and downs of college athletics.