The Rankings

25. Mississippi State Bulldogs
24. Houston Cougars!!!!!!!!!!!!
23. Utah Utes
22. UTSA Roadrunners
21. Arkansas Razorbacks
20. NC State Wolfpack
19. San Diego State Aztecs
18. Pittsburgh Panthers

17. Iowa Hawkeyes

16. Texas A&M Aggies

15. Wisconsin Badgers

14. BYU Cougars
13. Oklahoma Sooners
12. Ole Miss Rebels
11. Baylor Bears
10. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
9. Oklahoma State Cowboys
8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

7. Michigan State Spartans
6. Michigan Wolverines

5. Cincinnati Bearcats

4. Ohio State Buckeyes

3. Oregon Ducks
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
1. Georgia Bulldogs

The Reactions

RockyMtnBlue: This is dangerous. This is leading me to dream of not only playing in the Rose Bowl, but not having to play against Oregon. I mean, they’re fine? Cincinnati is getting screwed but we all knew that would happen. Michigan being ranked just ahead of MSU and Notre Dame might provide some butthurt in those fan bases and that’s all to the good. Iowa’s too high.

Stew: These rankings mean nothing. Getting mad about them is to be a crybaby.. The playoffs themselves are mostly preordained. Just ignore it and enjoy the actual fun and/or sicko football out there.

BoilerUp89: There are 3 undefeated teams left this season. Georgia, Cincinnati, and UTSA. Cincinnati and UTSA have transitive wins over Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State. UTSA doesn’t have a transitive win over Notre Dame because Notre Dame has only lost to Cincinnati and Cincinnati is undefeated. Cincinnati is 5th. UTSA is 22nd.

Ohio State is ranked 4th. Surely they have more wins against CFP top 25 teams than 5th ranked Cincinnati. Let’s look. Scrolling... scrolling... scrolling... Hmmm... that’s odd. Ohio State doesn’t have a single win against teams the CFP considers to be top 25 worthy.

Cincinnati has 1—on the road against #8 Notre Dame and zero losses compared to Ohio State’s one. If the committee put Ohio State above Cincinnati after they beat Michigan and Michigan State that would be one thing. But this is the committee picking their teams and then making up eye test arguments from there.

Resume should matter when picking teams for a playoff. And while Ohio State may even be a better team than Cincinnati this year, by the CFP’s own rankings Ohio State does not have a better resume than Cincinnati right now.

HWAHSQB: This is why people don’t like wisconsin Kind of..... Don’t put that evil on me!

RU in VA: Call me a radical, but I don’t ever see the point of caring about these rankings until the regular season is complete. Alabama is going to have to play Georgia, so what’s the real point of ranking them #1 and #2? Your average college-attending football fan sees right though that crappy façade of working the list to attempt to get two SEC teams in the 4 team playoff.

WE SEE IT EVERY YEAR

So many puzzling inclusions in here - Michigan? Oklahoma State? Wake Forest? Name one player for any of those teams, I dare you.

Kind of...: I don’t begrudge anybody ripping into ANY bureaucratic structure involving college sports, so go ahead and take your whacks at the committee. That said, there’s no single-value that can be administered in a foolproof fashion. And, even if the committee weren’t different in composition each year, slavish adherence to past precedent would be stupid. So, on the bright side, no matter what the committee does, you’ll be able to argue that they’re wrong and point both to a past decision, and some important-sounding factors, to back up your claim.

What matters? Not losing? Having the most good wins? It doesn’t matter, you’re free to reason backwards.

For my money, Alabama is over-ranked, and I’d be really interested in what happens if Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, and Cincy win out and it’s undefeated Cincy vs. two-loss Alabama. If the committee goes with ‘Bama, then the semis would be not one, but two rematches and the righteous indignation would be seismic. Which is why I really think Cincy is actually looking pretty good. In fact, if you really want to be outraged, but in a cool, first-to-like-the-indie-band sort of way, try this one on for size:

Georgia wins out. Ohio State wins out, knocking out Michigan and MSU in the process. Oklahoma and Okie State split two games so nobody in the Big 12 has fewer than two losses. And Utah beats Oregon once. Georgia is #1, Ohio State is #2, undefeated Cincinnati has to get the #3 spot because the only other major school with fewer than two losses is...

Fucking Notre Dame, who gets the fourth spot.

Save your outrage. You’re going to need it later.