via Imago NCAA, College League, USA Football: Rose Bowl-Utah at Ohio State Jan 1, 2022 Pasadena, California, USA ESPN broadcaster David Pollack during the 2022 Rose Bowl at Rose Bowl. Pasadena Rose Bowl California United States, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKirbyxLeex 17438797 via Imago NCAA, College League, USA Football: Rose Bowl-Utah at Ohio State Jan 1, 2022 Pasadena, California, USA ESPN broadcaster David Pollack during the 2022 Rose Bowl at Rose Bowl. Pasadena Rose Bowl California United States, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKirbyxLeex 17438797 The debate over college football predictions and the predictive models has been going on for quite a while now. And this week, it has been reignited by David Pollack. The predictive model’s high-profile analysis has never been able to close the gap between on-field performance and calculated simulations. Clemson had been among the top few teams of every predictive model’s preseason rankings, and now it hasn’t tasted a win twice. Watch What’s Trending Now! On a recent episode of See Ball Get Ball, David Pollack and co-host Brent Rollins were talking about playoff odds lists and win projections. The topic was specifically about PFF’s playoff prediction ranking. And that list pegged Florida State at around a 6% chance of making the playoffs, giving them an 8-win ceiling. Now, if you’ve even followed this season through highlights alone, you know what’s wrong with this assessment. Florida State, which started its season with a statement win over Alabama and has been thrashing lower-tier teams all around, was pegged at an 8-win ceiling. This is wrong on so many levels. But this was the projection that frustrated Pollack, and what we got was his brash and unfiltered reaction to these rankings. “Those projections suck. I can’t stand those projections. FPI, like for the ESPN stuff, they suck. They’re terrible. Like, I’m not looking at that crap; like, I’ve never looked at that crap,” David Pollack said, blasting both PFF’s list and ESPN’s power index. His point was pretty simple. These models often try to mask things that are uncertain with certainty. And in FSU’s case, it’s not even about being uncertain because they are not the underdogs anymore. The Alabama upset wasn’t luck because their performances in the games that followed have been equally impressive. ADVERTISEMENT