The first College Football Playoff Rankings were released Tuesday and as usual they’re trash. The frustrating thing about the Playoff Committee is that it’s completely subjective. At least with the BCS computer rankings they had some standards – here it’s all about the eye test. Which basically is a nicely phrased way to justify personal bias. If you’re going to have a multi-million dollar playoff put together why don’t you hire 5 new people every year – and their entire job is to watch every football game, not these college athletic directors and former players who have too much on their plate to focus entirely on football. But that’s for another article. Before I digress too much let’s take a look at what the CFP rankings got right and what they got wrong in their first playoff ranking.
The right things:
Georgia as the number one team
It’s a consensus number one in every ranking. If they messed this up, they would have been fired immediately – so naturally I wish they got this wrong, but they didn’t.
Michigan State in the top 4
Michigan State just came off with their biggest win of the season. They beat a rival who was highly ranked and as a result are the last remaining undefeated team in the Big Ten. They deserve to be here. I normally think the AP has the best rankings, but this is one they got wrong and the CFP rankings got right.
Oklahoma and Wake Forest in the top 10 – but out of the top 6
They’re both undefeated, and neither have been all that impressive this year – compared to the rest of the field. Wake Forest is having the best start to a season in decades, so they deserved to be rewarded. Oklahoma has done basically what Cincinnati has done the past two weeks – won games they should control in close ways. Sure they trounced Texas Tech last week, but that doesn’t erase the 3 one-score games to unranked teams and a 12 point win over Kansas. That puts them on the outside of the playoff but still with a respectable ranking to allow them a playoff spot if they run the table.
What they got wrong:
Cincinnati out of the top 4
Like I just mentioned above, Cincinnati hasn’t looked too impressive the past two weeks, but a win is still a win. They’ve taken care of business the way they claim a Group of Five team needs to make the playoff. But somehow they’re left in the 6th spot. Clearly they don’t want Cincinnati in the playoff and will do whatever they can to keep them out. Sure they haven’t had a great schedule – that game against Mercer is a major blemish they should have replaced with an FBS team from any conference. But their schedule I’d argue is as good as Oregon’s or Ohio State’s, but for some reason the CFP thought those teams deserved to be higher ranked even with blemishes on their record. This is a big fail for the committee and will likely increase the calls for playoff expansion – which in the end is a good thing I suppose.
Oregon and Ohio State in the top 10
They’re number 4 and 5 respectively, but they really don’t deserve to be in the top 10 with the one loss and a poor schedule. Oregon’s best win is against Ohio State, which normally sounds like a big win, but I don’t think Ohio State is a top 10 team this year. Their next best win is against Fresno State – that’s not a schedule I’d be bragging about especially with FCS opponent Stoney Brook being one of their other non-conference wins. Ohio State is having nearly as easy of a schedule. Their big wins are against Penn State – who is having a nice season, but aren’t the juggernauts the name implies – and against Minnesota who is somehow leading the Big Ten West but is at best a top 35 team (as they rank in the AP rankings not the CFP). If you’re going to fault Cincinnati for having an easy schedule these two teams need to be on the outside looking in rather than in prime position for a playoff run.
Group of Five Disrespect
We’ve already covered the Cincinnati portion of this, so let’s take a second to look at the rest of the field. The committee somehow decided that there were only 4 Group of Five teams that deserved to be ranked – Cincinnati, BYU, Fresno State, and San Diego State. The fact that they completely left the Sun Belt off and an undefeated UTSA team out of the rankings is a joke. The Sun Belt is likely the 6th or 7th best conference this year – Coastal Carolina showed they’re a solid program they beat a Big 12 team (sure it was Kansas, but they went on the road and won by more than Oklahoma) and have won most their games with style points. Their only loss is a last second loss to rival Appalachian State (a team who nearly beat Miami earlier this season). As bad as that omission is, the fact that UTSA isn’t ranked is even more embarrassing. There’s only 6 undefeated teams at this point in the season, and the committee decided that only 5 were worth ranking. I’m not calling for UTSA to be ranked in the top 20 even, just saying they need to be on the list. They beat a Big Ten team (sure it was only Illinois, but they’re still a Power 5 conference team) and an American team (Memphis). SMU, Houston, and Louisiana are all 7-1 and should be on list or close as well – at least before they put any 3 loss teams like they did with Wisconsin and Mississippi State.
Everything Past 16 in the Rankings
Let’s start with the 3 loss teams – Mississippi State and Wisconsin have no business being ranked yet. It’s too early in the year to have 3 loss teams on the rankings. Maybe put them in next week, but not this week. Minnesota also doesn’t belong – and I’m a Minnesota fan. They only received 51 votes in the AP rankings – which puts them at 31st in that poll. They don’t have an impressive win yet, and they have an embarrassing loss to Bowling Green. Sure they’re on top of the Big Ten West, but they haven’t done anything to deserve a ranking. Pitt and NC State fit the same bill as Minnesota, but are more deserving than the Gophers to be ranked – but that doesn’t mean they should be ranked. Even one of their Group of Five team they threw on towards the end isn’t the most deserving of the crowd. San Diego State seems to be thrown on there to help boost the value of the Pac 12 more than anything – I’d say Houston, SMU, or Louisiana should be on there instead. Every year the committee says they don’t really worry about teams towards the end of the rankings and it really shows. If that’s the case they shouldn’t be married to the top 25 format – just stop at 15 and accept that’s how many they pay attention. The bottom of their rankings shows they aren’t watching every game, and are really only watching the top programs and their own games.
The CFP committee is a flawed system – they have glaring mistakes – and this is the first release of the season, there’s sure to be more. Even though they get some things right, they seem to get more wrong each week and season that passes. Unfortunately this is the system we’re stuck with, and I’ll be here the rest of the way complaining about their decisions with each ranking they release.