So the College Football Playoff selection committee is gaining necessary respect for BYU while still showing too much to Texas and Miami.
That’s the first-blush takeaway from the second installment of the CFP’s 12-team rankings. Grievances are forthcoming, including this: People who complain about the existence of these weekly rankings, when the only thing that matters is the final list and official bracket, need to stand down.
This detracts from complaints about the actual rankings, which deserve full-throated amplification. Sure, this is a largely pointless and thankless exercise, opening 13 committee members to regular doses of venom for giving their time to a process with ambiguous guidelines. Sure, this is manufactured content — and well-placed Tuesday, between men’s college hoops games Kansas–Michigan State and Duke–Kentucky in the Champions Classic.
But this is like instant replay in sports. Or preseason polls. People always want to rail against them and wish for a world without them. So let’s try it. Let’s try a blatant, game-deciding missed call on a fumble that now can’t be corrected. Or opening week in college football with no opportunity for someone to shock the No. 1 team because no one is ranked. You wouldn’t last five minutes in that world.
We want the weekly Playoff rankings. We want them to give us a glimpse into how things may turn out (even though the final bracket may contradict what we think we learned). We want to dissect them. We want to complain about them. In fact, we like these rankings so much, how about we rank them?
Here are Tuesday’s, ranked in order from best to worst:
1. BYU at No. 6. Should the Cougars have been higher? Absolutely. This is an unbeaten team with wins at No. 14 SMU and by 29 points over No. 16 Kansas State, with the No. 54 strength of schedule (according to The Athletic’s Austin Mock) — stronger than Texas and Indiana, two teams ahead of BYU. This team has had close calls, such as Saturday’s rivalry road win against Utah, after which too much was made about an obviously correct holding call on Utah and the resulting Utah meltdown, not enough about the Cougars’ grittiness.
This ranks first, though, because it demonstrates some members of the committee recognizing the mistakes they made the first time around and fixing them. For all who screamed about the disrespect of BYU coming in No. 9 last week, congratulations. You’ve been heard.
2. Georgia at No. 12. Which means, of course, out of the bracket because Boise State gets the automatic Group of 5 bid right now and bumps out the Bulldogs. Kirby Smart’s team is No. 1 in strength of schedule, controlling No. 3 Texas on the road and stomping No. 20 Clemson at a neutral site.
But losses to No. 10 Alabama and No. 11 Ole Miss, several shaky wins and a clear downturn of late in overall play? The committee got this exactly right. Now Georgia can get itself right back in there by beating Tennessee on Saturday.
3. Indiana at No. 5. The Hoosiers struggled in the second half at home against Michigan and didn’t bludgeon an opponent for the first time, but that 20-15 win against a 5-5 team was worth a jump from No. 8 in the initial rankings. Obviously, Georgia and Miami losses helped BYU and IU both move up, but the 10-0 Hoosiers could have been dinged for the eye test setback, paired with the No. 81 schedule strength and zero Top 25 wins.
Good on the committee for rewarding clutch play against an opponent with plenty of talent. This weakens the idea that a loss at Ohio State could make the Hoosiers vulnerable at 11-1. Also, BYU should be ahead of Indiana.
4. Notre Dame at 8. This is exactly where the Fighting Irish should be. This is where The Athletic’s Mock projected the Fighting Irish, this is where I had them, this is where every mock bracket in the world had them. Not really, but it’s where everyone should have had them.
The question for the committee is the same as it is for the basketball committees: Can this team win games in this tournament? In other words, good wins should count more for you than bad losses count against you. Notre Dame has the worst loss, to Northern Illinois, but the road win over No. 15 Texas A&M and another over No. 19 Louisville — plus a 37-point demolition of Navy — more than counteract.
5. Oregon at No. 1. You don’t get big points for doing the obvious. But at least you did the obvious.
6. Ohio State at No. 2. This is pretty easy, too, the only loss coming at Oregon in a classic, with the No. 26 schedule strength, a win at No. 4 Penn State and a lot of dominant football outside of that weird Nebraska game.
7. Ole Miss at No. 11. Lane Kiffin’s squad absolutely deserved to jump into the field, and ahead of Georgia, after a 28-10 win over the Bulldogs. Thing is, they have a case to be higher. The home loss to Kentucky is a head-scratcher and the frustrating giveaway at LSU might cost an SEC title. But this team with the No. 39 schedule strength is ranked No. 2 in overall efficiency by ESPN’s FPI, and that 27-3 romp at No. 21 South Carolina shouldn’t be overlooked.
8. Tennessee at No. 7. It’s about right, and this isn’t ranked by the committee with conferences in mind, but just in terms of the SEC, this should be its highest-ranked team. Tennessee should be ahead of Texas, just as Tennessee gets to be called “UT” while Texas must relinquish it. It’s very simple: Yes, Texas’ loss to Georgia is better than Tennessee’s loss at Arkansas, but Tennessee’s win over Alabama is better than Texas’ best win — at Vanderbilt.
Wins should matter more (and yes, I know, transitive football reminds us that Vanderbilt beat Alabama). The Vols are 10 spots better in schedule strength (70, compared with Texas’ 80) as well.
9. Alabama at No. 10. I think the Crimson Tide should be higher than this after thoroughly dismantling LSU (now No. 22 in the rankings) at night on the road in front of an imposter tiger. This team is No. 3 in schedule strength. It adds a Top 25 win with South Carolina joining the rankings. It has another, 34-0, over No. 23 Missouri. The two losses are respectable. Aren’t you so sick of this anti-Alabama bias?
10. Penn State at No. 4. I’m sorry, I just don’t see how a team with no Top 25 wins comes in this high. Good schedule strength (17) and the biannual hard-fought home loss against Ohio State, but this team hasn’t been pleasing to the eye test every week. Very good at Wisconsin and Washington, less so against Bowling Green and in a road escape against USC. This puzzles.
11. Miami at No. 9. That Georgia Tech loss should have put the Hurricanes on the brink. You’re talking No. 68 strength of schedule, one Top 25 win — 52-45 at No. 19 Louisville — and improbable escapes against Virginia Tech and Cal. Is it hypocritical to credit BYU for its guttiness at Utah and ding Miami for getting lucky in those games? Maybe. But this team is erratic and just plain bad defensively — my goodness, it only beat Florida State by 22!
12. Texas at No. 3. Same thing as Penn State, just a bit more puzzling. The Longhorns can look great, but we must view the win at Michigan differently now. That carries value in most years. Same with a blowout of Oklahoma. This year, those teams may as well be Rutgers and Arkansas.
This year, so far, the three-point grinder at Vanderbilt is tops for a team that, again, ranks No. 80 in schedule strength.
Committee chair Warde Manuel noted that the Longhorns “had a decisive win over Florida this week,” but that’s Florida with QB3. Considering what Georgia did at Texas, and how Georgia has looked for much of the season, and all aforementioned factors, Texas should be vulnerable in the event of a season-ending loss at rival Texas A&M.
The committee is telling us the Longhorns won’t be. Here’s to our weekly opportunity to complain, and to the committee doing some homework in the next week: Horns down, at least a few spots.
(Photo of Quinn Ewers: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
