The Gould Standard: Playing Favorites. Georgia and Michigan Will Try to Buck Upset Trend.

 If ever there was a year where the simple solution is also the best solution, this college football season is it.

Georgia vs. Michigan.

Two unbeaten champions from the two most notoriously best conferences. No other unbeaten teams to question the system.

And college football, which seems to delight in making the simple complicated, may get there yet.

Although Ohio State and TCU may have something to say about that.

In a way, I hope they do. Because it’s kind of fun to, you know, watch games that come with surprises.

Las Vegas bookmakers, who favor the Dawgs and the Wolverines by at least a touchdown, have made their point about the best bets.

Face it. Georgia has been the team all season by a wide margin. If anti-trust law applied to college football rosters, the Justice Department would be camped out in Athens.

And yet. . . what is the Dawgs’ best win outside the state of Georgia? They did not beat an SEC team that won more conference games than it lost when they crossed their state line.

Once again, when Georgia takes on Ohio State in Atlanta—a neutral site!—it will be playing its ninth game in the Peachy State.

So the Dawgs have got that going for them.

Meanwhile, Michigan, which was written off due to its lame nonconference schedule, faces TCU, which is still being written off for its narrow escapes and dubious schedule.

So. . . the Wolverines-Horned Frogs matchup is a game between disrespected (in their minds) teams—although Michigan has gone from disrespected to the team that has dethroned Ohio State as the perennial power in the Big Ten.

If you're a fan of disrespect. . . Advantage, TCU.

And by the way, Ohio State now gets to play the disrespect card, too.

Do not underestimate the importance of that.

If there is one thing we learned from the final stages of this regular season, it is that being favored to win doesn’t always translate into winning.

Just ask Ohio State, TCU, USC and Clemson. And LSU. And. . .

In other words, the supposed best teams in the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC and SEC West all suffered surprising late-season stumbles.

That’s why I like college football. You never know what you're going to see.

And that’s why I don’t put too much stock in committees deciding which teams are best. I much prefer to let players and coaches decide that.