Cover your ears, Bowl Championship Series haters. Many computer rankings, which rely on statistics and algorithms to rate teams, tracked closely with how the committee’s 12 flesh-and-blood experts ended up listing the teams in the season’s first College Football Playoff ranking last Tuesday night.
The computer rankings were far closer to the official ranking than last week’s Associated Press poll (voted on by journalists) and the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. For example, a computer composite ranking and the official ranking each had Alabama at No. 4, while The A.P. and the coaches’ poll each had the Crimson Tide at No.