The College Football Playoff committee released the newest rankings, and the people have questions. To no surprise, the the top four was as follows.
With Michigan State losing, they were bumped out of the top 4, but it was where they ended up which didn’t make sense. The Spartans ended up falling all the way to the #7 spot, one spot behind the Michigan Wolverines who found themselves at #6. This doesn’t make sense, as MSU just defeated Michigan a mere 12 days ago. Does the head to head match up not matter? This is what CFP Chairman Gary Barta had to say about this:
Obviously, the eye test matters more to the committee than the head to head wins/losses. This is a clear example of that. But what I don’t like, is the fact that the committee is inconsistent with this thinking.
One other example, is the Penn State win over Auburn. Both teams are 6-3, yet Auburn is ranked 17th while Penn State remains unranked. This tells us that the head to head win does not matter here.
Now this is where things get interesting. Oregon beat Ohio State in week 2, and remains ahead of Ohio State in the rankings. I would argue that the Buckeyes have looked better than the Ducks since week 2, with an offense that is statistically #1 in the country and a defense that is seemingly much improved.
Now with that being said, both Oregon and Ohio State did not look dominant last week, with the Ducks grinding out a win in Seattle against a sub par Washington team, and Ohio State struggling to produce a running game allowing Nebraska to hang around the entire game. But if the committee were staying consistent, wouldn’t they rank the Buckeyes ahead of the Ducks, especially in the initial rankings after Ohio State beat Penn State?
This is clearly a season where the eye test matters more than the resume or head to head matchup.
