It’s finally here. We can stop all the conjecture and hand-ringing (well, sort of) with the traditional college football polls like the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches and the Associated Press because the College Football Playoff committee will release the first edition of the 2021 CFP rankings Tuesday night.
So, instead of trying to figure out how the committee views all the teams in the running during such a chaotic year, we’ll finally get a sense of what’s more important than other factors. It’s a slam-dunk that Georgia will be No. 1, but what happens behind the Bulldogs is anyone’s guess.
How does the committee view an undefeated Power Five school Cincinnati, what about the one-loss teams like Alabama and Ohio State? How will Oregon be viewed because of the win over the Buckeyes in Columbus? Where is Michigan State?
We’ll all find out Tuesday night.
But we’re not waiting. We do our best each week to try and figure it all out based on past history and the criteria the CFP committee is supposed to be following, but as we’ve seen in past years, that criteria seems to change based more on opinion and the eye test more than anything else.
So, here we go, our best guess at what the initial College Football Playoff Rankings might look like when unveiled on a television or streaming device near you on Tuesday evening.