Five reactions and what we learned from the from the second College Football Playoff rankings of 2020.
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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– 15 Best Wins So Far
– Ohio State is in the Top 4
– New Year’s Six Situation
– What it all really means
5. Rapid-Fire First Reaction To Latest College Football Playoff Rankings
The College Football Playoff committee still can’t get Louisiana right. As predicted, the Ragin’ Cajuns received a token ranking of 25 after being left out last week, but there’s still a gigantic gap between them at the bottom, and where they’re supposed to be ahead of Iowa State. The Cyclones are at 9, even though they have two losses, one of them is to Louisiana, and Coastal Carolina (18) is unbeaten and beat Louisiana.
Beating Texas just isn’t that big a deal. It shouldn’t have been enough to move the Cyclones from 13 to 9.
The committee has always had a blind spot to tough losses. Auburn was ranked last week, lost to the-be-all-end-all No. 1 Alabama team, and now it’s out – like it’s Auburn’s fault that it played Bama.
So, if beating Texas on a last second missed field goal was SO good that it earned Iowa State a move up from 13 to 9, then why move Texas from 17 to out of this thing entirely? How much worse is Texas now than it was last week before it lost a nail-biter to the supposed No. 9 team?
And THAT’S the problem with Ohio State being No. 4. You can’t say that you think Ohio State is the fourth-best team in the country – despite doing NOTHING to earn that distinction – and then drop a team like Auburn from 23 to out of this, and Texas from 17 to out, because of a loss to a top team by the committee’s own rankings.
Ohio State absolutely could be one of the four-best teams – and if the committee really believes that, fine. But then apply the same measure to everyone else, and don’t punish teams just because they lost to someone fantastic.
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Wisconsin being 16 is an absolute gift. Looking great by beating Illinois and Michigan shouldn’t be enough to earn a spot this good.
The committee is supposed to take injuries into account. It really still thinks Indiana is the 12th-best team in college football without Michael Penix?
The eye test desperately has to be eliminated from the College Football Playoff process. Now.
– 15 Best Wins So Far
– Ohio State is in the Top 4
– New Year’s Six Situation
– What it all really means