Our football team is better than our ranking would suggest

There are five schools ahead of us with MORE losses…

“From North Carolina, at guard, No. 23, Michael Jordan!” This is how Jordan was introduced for every home game as a member of the Chicago Bulls.

His number, 23, is now the ranking of the UNC football team in the latest College Football Playoff polls.

We’re on an eight-game winning streak and coming off a dominant performance, yet we’re ranked behind schools like Memphis, who lost by 25, and UCLA, who is 7-2 with losses to Arizona State and Stanford.

It’s as if the committee is saying: “You’re a basketball school. You don’t get to be good at football, too.”

Most sports sites, like ESPN, CBS and Bleacher Report, all agree our Heels aren’t being given proper credit. But this is college football. Tradition matters.

When you look at the top four teams, there are two undefeated teams. Can’t really argue with that. The other two, Alabama and Notre Dame, have rich football traditions.

Alabama is to football what d00k is to basketball. Both have the program you’re either a fan of or you hate. Notre Dame is similar, but much less successful.

But Alabama seems to ride on pedigree into the season, doing just enough to show they are a good team. The loss to Ole Miss looks worse with each passing week, but the committee still loves them.

In that sense, the committee would love for the season to end today. Alabama wouldn’t have to play any other opponent in the highly competitive SEC, and Notre Dame wouldn’t be allowed to choke like they do every year.

Seriously, Notre Dame flops every single year, yet they still get hyped as National Championship material. The last time they made it there, they lost 42-7, which is almost as embarrassing as d00k’s loss last Saturday.

Let’s take a look at the Tar Heels’ case in this format. While the ranking is rather low, it isn’t impossible to overcome. It’d just take a ton of help from everyone else.

First, the overall record of 8-1. That’s a solid record, but the one loss to South Carolina hurts. Football isn’t a sport where it’s easy to come back from losses. To keep hope alive, we would need to win out.

The next thing to look at is a term called “quality wins.” Ironically, d00k losing to Miami screwed us because that would’ve been a chance to not only beat another ranked opponent, but to demolish one.

It’s still an above-average win, and our win at Pittsburgh helps. A huge win over an undefeated Clemson in the ACC Championship could solidify this portion of the ranking process.

Strength of schedule is important in college football. According to the ESPN rankings, we have the 68th hardest schedule in the nation, which is only two spots lower than reigning champions Ohio State.

Take all of these things into account and compare them against the other teams ahead of UNC. It’s easy to say we could’ve been six spots higher.

The good news is the other teams will play each other, while the only potential matchup we have against anyone ranked higher than us is Clemson.

For reference of what a win like that could do to our ranking, Oklahoma State beat the previous No. 8 TCU and moved up six spots.

If things fall in a good order, Carolina could easily be a top-ten team at the end of the season.

UNC will continue to rise up in the rankings as long as we continue to win. It would take near-chaos at this point to secure a top-four spot in the final rankings and participate in the College Football Playoff.

But, a huge bowl game in the New Year’s Six, like the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl, is well within reach. Plus, it’d still be great to win the ACC Championship over the No. 1 team in the nation.

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