Dabo Swinney gets it right with Clemson's Senior Day salute

— -- Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney loves to talk, and what's good about that for the college football public is -- everything. He's not afraid to say what he thinks, and he's not always politic. As a result, all of us have a much better idea of what college football is really like.

Take Swinney's discussion this week of his players who are going to leave early for the NFL. It's obvious and easily understood why quarterback Deshaun Watson, wide receivers? Mike Williams and Artavis Scott, and running back Wayne Gallman are leaving. But most coaches would consider such midseason talk a distraction, or perhaps harbor hope of convincing their stars to stick around. Swinney sees what's best for the player, makes the decision and keeps moving. It's refreshing. And rare.

1. I looked at the final College Football Playoff ranking in 2014, and I was amazed by what I saw: a lot of unfamiliar names. Only three teams from the top 16 two years ago are in this week's CFP rankings: No. 1 Alabama, No. 5 Ohio State and No. 18 Florida State. Seven of those 16 teams currently have losing records, and another five are 5-4. Maybe there has been another two-year span with such rapid turnover at the top. Nothing comes to mind. College football has earned the reputation of being an oligarchy, with a few teams taking turns at the top. Ask Oregon, Arizona, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, UCLA and Missouri how easy it is to keep winning.

2. Illinois is taking its Northwestern home games from Chicago's Soldier Field back to Champaign, Syracuse has no more games scheduled at MetLife Stadium, and it says here those are good things. Rutgers tried playing in the Meadowlands for years and decided it would be better to expand its own stadium. NFL cities, with rare exceptions (Washington in Seattle; USC and UCLA in Los Angeles), are only somewhat interested in college football. To move a game three or four hours away and pretend it's still a home game is self-delusional, especially the part about building a fan base. It might be different if you win a lot. But if you win a lot, you don't move your home games three or four hours away.

7. Nine of the top 15 teams in the College Football Playoff rankings have two losses. That's much different than in each of the past two seasons, when after Week 10 only one team in the top 15 had two losses. In both seasons, Week 11 proved to be a line of demarcation. Two years ago, six teams suffered their second loss in Week 11; last season, four teams did. What to make of all this? A) Conference schedules in November are designed to find champions. B) We've been lucky this season that the best have played the best. Seven of the nine two-loss teams this season have a loss against one current top-five team (No. 7 Wisconsin has two). Strength of schedule is being rewarded.