College Football Playoff Rankings Reaction, Top 10
10. LSU Tigers 6-2
The 45-20 win over Ole Miss apparently meant everything. It’s not like the Tigers fought the good fight in a 40-13 loss to Tennessee at home, and the Florida State loss was still a loss – even if it that was the textbook example of a team that was a tune-up game from probably winning it.
Even so, I get it. You can tell there was a discussion that LSU had to be one spot ahead of Ole Miss because that game just happened a few weeks ago.
9. USC Trojans 7-1
There has been no bigger USC Is Going To The College Football Playoff fanboy than me – I’ve been driving that party bus since April. However, ranking this team at the 9 means 1) the committee doesn’t have the Pac-12 Network, 2) it doesn’t stay up late, and/or 3) hasn’t been watching the games.
You can’t say you’ve seen this defense play and put the Trojans in the top ten.
Barely beating CFP 23 Oregon State isn’t enough to earn this spot over UCLA. Swap the Bruins and Trojans and this is closer to right.
8. Oregon Ducks 7-1
I’m trying to scream to anyone who’ll listen – and everyone who won’t – that the committee is going to take a 12-1 Pac-12 Champion over an 11-1 non-champion. Oregon being ranked this high is a big deal considering the 49-3 blasting from Georgia to start the season.
If beating UCLA is enough to get the Ducks this spot, then beating Utah, Oregon State, and (maybe) USC or UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship should be enough to get in.
7. TCU Horned Frogs 8-0
Oklahoma State is 18. Kansas State is 13. TCU beat them both.
Hanging 55 on Oklahoma should matter, taking out Kansas – yeah, really – on the road should matter, and being 8-0 while playing in the most even conference in college football should matter. I’ll buy into the idea that if this was Texas or Oklahoma with this body of work, it would be ranked fourth, at worst.
6. Alabama Crimson Tide 7-1
Here’s where the hypocrisy kicks in. Usually the committee doesn’t give any credit for losses to great teams – see Penn State at 15 – and only loves big wins. Texas being ranked 24th by the CFP matters here, otherwise there aren’t any Alabama victories over ranked teams.
Losing by just this much against the CFP No. 1 team on the road helped the ranking – and because no one loves anything more than this committee traditionally loves Bama.
5. Michigan Wolverines 8-0
Michigan did it right. There’s NO reason to play a good team before late September – ask Oregon, ask LSU, ask Utah. It’s better to tune-up on easy teams at home to prepare for what’s coming.
However, with this schedule it’s going to be hard to give the Wolverines the possible CFP love at the end if they 11-1 with the only loss coming to Ohio State. But they’re unbeaten, and they’re in a position to go back to the CFP by running the table.
With all that said, resumé-wise, TCU should’ve been here.