All you can do is laugh.

Why?

Because Greg Sankey, the SEC and ESPN think we are all stupid.

That’s right, they think we are stupid.

Last week, Sankey had his people during the end of the SEC’s Spring meetings hand out a seven-page packet to the media explaining why the teams in the SEC have to be given more consideration by the College Football Playoff Committee “because our schedules are so hard.”

This after Sankey and coaches, like Lane Kiffin and Kalen DeBoer, spent the week whining about how they were screwed in last year’s CFP selection process because “we play in a hard conference” and “we won nine games in a hard conference.”

Fast forward to Tuesday and ESPN throws up its new and very fair (that’s sarcasm in case you are wondering) Football Power Index Rankings for the preseason. Let’s just say the hype machine is already beginning.

ESPN’s so-called “FPI Rankings” has 11 SEC teams in its top 18. That’s right?! Eleven.

The college football season is less than three months away and ESPN is allowing the SEC to build a narrative for one or maybe two or three, 3-loss teams to get into the 12-team playoff field over one-loss teams from conferences who actually deserve to be there.

Come Nov. 5, when the first CFP rankings are revealed, Kirk Herbstreit, or someone else on the ESPN set, will make one of several arguments defending the SEC and will use their strength of schedule metric or the FPI to do it.

They will say something stupid like, “we need to value who loses more than who wins,” which is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. But it is pretty much what Herbstreit said last year after the first round of the CFP, as he again tried to make a case for Alabama and Ole Miss to be in the playoff over Indiana and SMU.

But ESPN’s latest FPI rankings are arrogant at best. They are already hyping up teams, right now, that do not deserve it.

If you have not seen the rankings, you need to check it out and see how ridiculous it is. It does not take long to start laughing.

Alabama is ranked No. 3. Why?

This is not Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide. They do not even have a quarterback in place yet, and they are already in the top 3.

I do not know a single person who covers college football that believes Alabama is a top 10 team, much less a top 3 team heading into the season.

Then there is Texas A&M at No. 8 and Tennessee at No. 10. Really?! Texas A&M, well, is Texas A&M and Tennessee, are you kidding me. The Vols have to replace most of their key offensive and defensive pieces, including a new quarterback and they are No. 10?

Either this computer is broken or it just does not take into account quarterbacks.

Speaking of having a quarterback, Clemson is No. 11. The Tigers return more starting production on offense and defense than any team in college football, plus they return Heisman hopeful Cade Klubnik at quarterback, who people on ESPN’s staff believe is the best quarterback in the country.

Yeah, No. 11 makes sense.

By the way, Auburn is No. 14 and South Carolina No. 15. So, do the math. ESPN’s FPI is saying, on June 4, that the eighth and ninth place teams in the SEC deserve to be in the conversation for a CFP spot.

This idea that the SEC is so much better than everyone else must stop. We are not stupid. We can see with our own eyes who is and who is not a playoff worthy team.

We all knew from watching Ole Miss lose to a horrible Kentucky team at home and Alabama get destroyed by the worst Oklahoma team in a quarter of a century, that Alabama and Ole Miss did not deserve to be playoff teams.

You know how we knew that, because we are not stupid. We could see that with our own eyes.

Stop thinking we are stupid, SEC. Stop thinking we are stupid, ESPN. Everybody knows ESPN is paying the CFP. Everybody knows ESPN is paying the SEC a lot of money.

We see it.

It’s obvious. ESPN wants more SEC teams in the playoff, so they can get more television revenue and make as much money as possible, so it can pay for its HUGE television deal to the SEC.

Again, we are not stupid.