Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti is crying foul and claiming bias after the School Soccer Playoff Choice Committee launched its first weekly rankings.
On his weekly radio present Wednesday, Cignetti took specific goal on the analysts ESPN makes use of on its rankings reveal program and the narratives they assist.
“They’re given directions on what to say, they usually observe the corporate line,” Cignetti mentioned of the community’s faculty soccer analysts.
Cignetti continued, “SEC will get lots of love from ESPN, , and all their writers that they don’t technically pay, however march to their drum. So, and that’s why you see all these SEC groups up there, , and a few good two-loss groups from the Huge Ten, not fairly as excessive. However like I mentioned, it’s all going to be it’s all going to be performed out on the sphere.”
ESPN holds the SEC’s nationwide tv rights and the media rights to the School Soccer Playoff.
The committee was actually favorable to the SEC within the first installment of the CFP rankings. Voters put ten SEC groups within the high 25, versus solely six from the Huge 10, the place Cignetti’s Hoosiers play.
Nonetheless, the SEC has been the higher convention total this yr, so the variety of groups within the high 25 just isn’t essentially the purpose of competition. The true controversy is how these SEC groups are ranked.
For instance, eyebrows have been raised when Alabama, a two-loss SEC crew, got here in on the unexpectedly excessive rating of fifth. As well as, Texas, a two-loss SEC squad that has misplaced to 2 unranked groups, got here in on the comparatively excessive rating of seventh.
In the meantime, Ohio State, a Huge 10 crew who made the journey to USC final weekend to tackle the Trojans with out their beginning quarterback, acquired bounced out of the playoff solely after shedding to just one unranked opponent.
Nonetheless, the committee may be accused of exhibiting favoritism to Indiana.
The Hoosiers, ranked fourth by the CFP, have wanted extra time to beat two unranked groups and barely escaped the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who’re on the verge of firing their head coach. Actually, the Hoosiers simply benched their beginning quarterback due to offensive ineptitude, and the one participant with any nationwide recognition on the complete roster is extensive receiver Nick Marsh.
CFP Choice Committee Chairman Hunter Yurachek mentioned Notre Dame had no “signature wins” when explaining why the committee put the Irish eleventh. Properly, neither does Indiana, which is ranked seven spots forward of the Irish.
In any occasion, Cignetti’s considerations about bias towards the SEC are reputable, however he is probably not one of the best individual to make that argument.
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