to gain the exposure that typically comes with being ranked. Schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma, UDub, etc. have the benefit of either being a blue blood program or in that next tier right below the blue blood programs. For the other programs, what will entice someone living in Why, AZ to watch the Backyard Brawl or the K-State vs. IA State game on TV if the rankings isn't an option and the person is unfamiliar with the history of the rivalry? For some of the rivalries that have been on an indefinite pause, enough time has passed where people may not know the history of the rivalry unless they are connected to either school or at least live in the area to be able to interact with fans from either school. Then there are some rivalries (i.e. the Border War - KU vs. Mizzou or Colorado St vs. Wyoming) that were overshadowed during the "glory days" of college football rivalry games because attention was given to bigger rivalries on a national stage. Rankings is one way to increase the exposure for those rivalries. I suspect more people watched the Border War on TV during the few years when KU and Mizzou were ranked in the Top 10-15 for that reason alone. If the rankings went away, then what tools to do the networks have to entice viewers to watch that game than another game going on at the the time that involves at least 1 team with a slightly higher profile? The other thought that crossed my mind is if rankings went away and/or teams aren't penalized for OOC games, then at some point a HC will try to game the system. For example, play all the conference games at the beginning of the season and save all the OOC games for the end of the season. Since the team at the end of the season isn't the same team at the beginning of the season, then it shouldn't matter when a team plays its OOC games because it won't impact a FBS Playoff bid or bowl bid. If anything, playing OOC games late in the regular season may help a winning team because the game is more fresh in the voters mind when trying to compare how 2 conferences stack up to each other for voting purposes.