No one should be surprised.
In the SEC, “It just means more,” and for ESPN, it just means more to elevate an SEC team in the College Football Playoff rankings whenever and wherever possible.
The College Football Playoff’s latest rankings came out on Tuesday evening, and after the Tennessee Volunteers got blown out by South Carolina, it was easy to think that the USC Trojans would naturally rise to the No. 5 spot behind Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, and TCU, the top four teams in the country.
Nope. LSU rose to No. 5 with USC staying at No. 6.
Let’s get some reactions and analysis to this story. Predictably, the College Football Playoff committee thinks USC’s defense is why the Trojans didn’t get ranked over LSU.