Random thoughts on the latest CFP rankings … For those that don’t follow college football all that closely, the CFP committee released the latest rankings for next month’s 12-team playoff. For the record, Oregon remains #1, followed by Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, and Indiana rounding out the top 5. The one potentially major change was that BYU dropped out of the Top 10 after being upset by Kansas last week and were actually jumped by Boise State as the 4th ranked conference champion. If that holds, Boise State, of the Mountain West, a non-Power 5 conference, would get one of the first-round byes AND a home game in the 2nd round. And while there are still a couple of weeks left in the regular college football schedule and upsets can always happen, the current rankings are getting close to be being baked in as there just aren’t many big games left involving top 10-15 teams. Second-ranked Ohio State will host #5 Indiana this weekend, and #3 Texas will play at #15 Texas A&M in two weeks, but that’s pretty much it for head-to-head to games that could implicate the playoff structure.
However, there is an interesting developing story in the SEC where it is very possible that as many as 5-6 teams will finish the season with 2 or fewer losses, but there may only be 4 spots available to the conference in the final playoff format. Based on this week’s rankings. Tennessee would be the odd man out in the SEC after the Vols lost to Georgia last week. Aside from the fact that we just don’t think any team should ever lose ground in the polls because of a loss to a team like Georgia on the road – but that’s another story for another day! – the elephant in the room for the SEC is their conference championship game. Indeed, there are whispers around the SEC that those half dozen or so 2-loss teams that could play in the conference championship game next month could just as soon not. Sure, if they were to win they’d get a first round bye, but lose and they’ll likely be out of the national playoff entirely! Again, we don’t think a loss in a conference championship game, possibly to a team ranked in the top 2-3, should count against a team in the final playoff ranking, when other teams not in a league title game simply haven’t played at all. Just maybe a bit of a bug!
We also had a bit of chuckle listening to the committee rather piously detailing how ‘they looked closely at every team’s schedule’ in coming up with the current ranking. Sure they did! Consider Notre Dame, currently at #6 and ahead of 4 two-loss SEC teams. The Irish did defeat Texas A&M in week one on the road, but their loss was to a 6-5 MAC team AT HOME! In fact, 15th ranked Texas A&M was the Irish’s top-ranked opponent this year as they haven’t faced a top 10 at all. Plus, when Notre Dame hosts Army this weekend, it will be the Irish’s 8th straight home game. Compare all that with say Georgia that has played 4 top ten teams to date including three on the road. Same story for #9 Miami, a 9-1 team which hasn’t played anyone near a top ten team and lost its last game to 6-4 Georgia Tech. Again, no is suggesting that Notre Dame and Miami shouldn’t get into the playoff , but ranked ahead of a team like Georgia is kind of nonsense given the disparity in their respective schedules.
