It was only a matter of time, right? The Wednesday Wizengamot delivers the brutal truth here: Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma have no business being in the College Football Playoff based on independent sabermetric rankings, and BYU, Notre Dame, and Utah were the sacrificial lambs in this process since it is perceived they would not bring as much TV revenue via viewer ratings. College football is a terrible sport.

We knew this; we have watched it happen for more than two decades, of course, and now the SEC has bought the CFP and sold college football fans as a whole down the river in the process. And the NCAA just sits there and lets it happen, because they were relatively powerless to do anything in the sport, thanks to the threat of lawsuits and the corruption/greed present almost everywhere in this country. What a world.

Start with Notre Dame: independence cost the school, finally, as it finished ranked No. 4 in the SRS rankings we have been using for almost six years on this website to cut through the ESPN-generated garbage (and the complicity of the network in fixing sports should be exposed by Congress, really). How do you keep the No. 4 team in the country—with a 10-2 record against the No. 18 SOS—out of a playoff?

You lie, of course, just like Donald J. Trump does all the time, and the sports networks like CBS, ESPN, and FOX just nod and grin while counting their TV ad dollars. Why do fans put up with this? Do they even care? Maybe they do not, as long as their team benefits from it all. When Notre Dame is shafted and then declines a garbage bowl bid, it’s because their fans have some loyalty and integrity, surprisingly enough. Go figure.

How about Brigham Young? The Cougars went 11-2, lost the Big XII Championship Game, and finished No. 10 in the SRS having run the gauntlet of the No. 6 SOS. Somehow, though, BYU also was excluded from the CFP. We could argue there is some religious animosity here with these two schools, but we won’t. They both have big, loyal fan bases, but evidently, the SEC teams in Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma have more?

As for the Utes, their 10-2 record and No. 9 slot in the SRS came against only the No. 48 SOS. But they dominated that schedule with the No. 6 offense and No. 17 defense in the country—hence the No. 9 SRS slot. Utah has been screwed so many times by the BCS in the past (see 2004 and 2008, for example), maybe it’s not a surprise that this rendition of the CFP would do the same once again. Utes alums/fans are used to it.

To recap, we list the six teams discussed here for comparison, plus two more, in SRS rank order:

We all know USC fans do not travel well for bowl games; this was established a long time ago. Why leave comfy Los Angeles unless? But the sacrifice of Vanderbilt at the altar of lesser SEC teams is sad, telling the Commodores that they don’t matter. But even using our standardized process for MNC analysis employed here for years, we can break these eight teams down knowing only three of them could make the CFP.

First, Alabama lost to Oklahoma head to head, so goodbye overrated Crimson Tide. And the Sooners lost to Ole Miss, so they can get lost, too. In our longtime analyses, a loss can be “erased” comparatively with 10 spots in the SOS rankings, so the Trojans get the nod over Mississippi with its much-weaker schedule difficulty. The same would apply to Vanderbilt, in truth, leaving us with four teams. And guess what?

Notre Dame beat USC head to head. There; it’s done. Pretty simple, until you listen to all the bullshit spun by the “committee” about faux merit, etc. Let us remind everyone that Alabama lost to a 5-7 Florida State team by two touchdowns. That loss alone is disqualifying in any sane world. But we digress: Utah has the edge on Vanderbilt, too, in both SRS and SOS ranks. So, it’s straightforward to see ND, Utah, and BYU here.

Too bad we live in a world of fraud, isn’t it? So much for the meritocracy. It’s all about the Benjamins, folks. Follow the money, as we learned from Watergate. Nothing changes, because the fans don’t demand change. And there you have it: the media does what feeds it, sadly, and the fans go along with it … because they feel powerless?! This is a supply-and-demand entertainment industry, people. You can say no and walk away.

We implore you to do so now. Again. Please.