Due to ESPN's love for #ratings and trying to generate interest in college basketball, we had to wait two extra hours for the latest College Football Playoff rankings to be released on Tuesday. As a result, that is why these gut reactions are later than normal.
You may have heard that Ohio State hopped up three spots to No. 2 in the rankings, behind only unbeaten Alabama. The Buckeyes are the highest ranked 1-loss team and if the Playoff began this weekend would play Michigan in one semifinal.
That obviously isn't going to happen as we are going to see on the field in 11 days who is better between the Buckeyes and Wolverines. Let's get to some other gut reactions from the latest set of rankings.
Big Ten-Table For Two?
There is still plenty of football left—and it is important to remember that these rankings are wiped clean every single week—but it is looking more and more like the Big Ten has a solid chance to get two teams in the top-4 when it is all said and done. Ohio State, obviously, is a huge part of that.
You know the scenarios—should the Buckeyes beat Michigan State and Michigan and Penn State takes care of business against Rutgers and the Spartans, the Nittany Lions will play for the Big Ten Championship. There is no precedent set where a team without a conference championship would be in the top-4 of the final rankings but selection committee chair Kirby Hocutt stressed résumés and a team's body of work on a conference call Tuesday night.
“It's based upon each particular team's résumé,” Hocutt said. “The selection committee has the flexibility if we believe two of the four best teams are from the same conference. If two teams are clearly in the top 4 of the country.”
It is important to know he also stressed that margin of victory is not considered as much as conference championships, strength of schedule, head-to-head matchups and comparable outcomes against common opponents. For example, Hocutt said, a 56-24 victory is in some ways different than a 32-0 victory. That line of importance is stressed by the commissioners of each conference in addition to the athletic director at Notre Dame, Hocutt said.
“Those four metrics are not weighted. They are in no particular order,” Hocutt said. “So it's up to the 12 individuals that make up the College Football Playoff Selection Committee as to what they see value in. Really it's the subjective opinion and analysis of 12 individuals giving those four metrics when teams are comparable.”
Hocutt also noted multiple times the margins between teams 2-6 in this week's rankings are "very small." It is clear there are a handful of teams beneath Alabama playing for three spots.
But if Penn State and Ohio State wins out, who goes to the Playoff? Maybe both? You might think Ohio State is better but if the Buckeyes make it, that means the Nittany Lions are too in that scenario.
Sup, USC
The men of Troy rose from No. 20 to No. 13 after they controlled previously unbeaten Washington 26-13 in Seattle. That is significant, and Hocutt defended the committee's decision to only drop Washington from No. 4 to No. 6 by giving credit to USC.
“When you talk to the coaches in the selection committee room, I don't think any of them would want to play that Southern California team right now,” Hocutt said.
That makes sense as the Trojans are on a six-game winning streak after switching to Sam Darnold at quarterback. The Trojans shouldn't move up anymore, though, because games against 4-6 UCLA and 4-6 Notre Dame are all that is left on the schedule.
Unless of course Colorado loses and allows USC to play in the Pac-12 title game, or more chaos happens in front of it.
Poor Dana Can't Catch a Break
Dana Holgorsen's West Virginia Mountaineers are 8-1, with their only loss coming at Oklahoma State two days before Halloween. West Virginia wasn't particularly great that day, getting in a three-touchdown hole it ultimately couldn't dig out of.
But the Mountaineers really should play Michigan State's #disrespekt card. The Big 12 is not the best Power 5 conference this season, so that is hurting them. Plus, the only top-25 team Holgerson's crew has played so far is Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers lost that game.
But chances in the form of Oklahoma, and Baylor are coming in the next three weeks to pick up some résumé-boosting wins. Ohio State fans should keep an eye on the game in Morgantown this weekend, and they should root for the Sooners to win out and be Big 12 champions.
If West Virginia does and Oklahoma State loses either to TCU or Oklahoma, a 1-loss Big 12 champion would give the committee one more thing to think about putting in the top-4 instead of the Buckeyes. The same goes for Washington if the Huskies win out.
Maybe I just love Red Bull-drinking, visor hat-wearing and beautiful hair-having Dana Holgorsen too much. He is a wonderful character for college football.
P.J. Fleck Should Be Salty
Row The Boat!
The rallying cry for Fleck's Western Michigan Broncos—one of two unbeaten teams remaining in college football—should ring loud this week but also annoyed. The committee kept the Broncos at No. 21 and felt they are no longer the best team from the Group of 5. That now belongs to No. 20 Boise State.
Boise State is 9-1, its lone loss coming at Wyoming by two points. Wyoming is a solid team and lost just its third game of the season last weekend in a shootout at UNLV, 69-66. Fleck probably won't do this but he should release some of that Energizer Bunny inside of him to ask, "What do we have to do?"
You can only play the games on your schedule and Western Michigan hasn't lost yet. Surely the Broncos are better than 21st, even though I know they play in the MAC. The top-ranked team from a Group of 5 conference goes to the Cotton Bowl this year. That should be Western Michigan if the Broncos finish 12-0.
Those Aggies Just Won't Go Away, Will They?
You know my distaste and disgust and feelings toward Kevin Sumlin and the Texas A&M Aggies. First, the committee ranked them fourth then after they lost to Mississippi State kept them in the conversation for the Playoff and dropped them only to No. 8.
And wouldn't you know it? Ole Miss—and a freshman quarterback the Rebels yanked a redshirt off of—beat Sumlin's boys this past weekend. Surely that would be enough to knock them out of the top-25. But no!
Sumlin still hangs out by a thread at No. 25. I'm sure a riveting victory over Texas San-Antonio this weekend will show just how polished and worthy the Aggies are of being in the top-25.
I really hope Aggie Land doesn't find this post.
