Does college football need to expand its four-team playoff? Well, the initial release of this year’s College Football Playoff rankings may make the idea more popular than ever before.
If Tuesday’s rankings look like the final rankings, the conference champions of the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 would all be watching from home.
Surprisingly, Georgia (8-0) was named the No. 1 team in the country, ahead of No. 2 Alabama (8-0), while Notre Dame (7-1) was ranked third, followed by defending national champion Clemson (7-1).
Oklahoma (7-1) was slotted fifth, ahead of No. 6 Ohio State (7-1), which suffered an early-season home loss to the Sooners. Washington (7-1), which made last year’s semifinals, was the highest-ranked Pac-12 team, but ranked 12th, making it likely the conference gets left out of the playoff for the second time in the past three years.
Selection committee chair Kirby Hocutt said the Irish were considered the best one-loss team in the country based on three double-digit wins against top-25 teams — No. 17 USC, No. 20 N.C. State and No. 24 Michigan State — while Clemson was looked at favorably for having six wins against teams with winning records, and losing its only game (at Syracuse) when quarterback Kelly Bryant was injured.
“The discussion from teams three through seven [Penn State] was as passionate as any discussion that I can remember the selection committee having,” Hocutt said.
Though the Crimson Tide are ranked first in the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll — garnering a combined 124 out of 126 first place votes — the Bulldogs were given the nod based on their one-point road win at Notre Dame.
“I would say [the margin] was even closer for teams one and two,” Hocutt said.
Aside from head-to-head results, the most important factors for the 13-member committee were strength of schedule and the eye test.
Though Wisconsin (8-0) is No. 4 in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll — and the only undefeated team in the Big Ten — the Badgers’ lack of a signature win dropped them to ninth. Miami (7-0), which has won four straight games by single-digits, was placed 10th despite being ranked sixth in the Coaches Poll.
No. 18 UCF (7-0) was the highest-ranked team Group of Five team.
“We don’t look at the other polls,” Hocutt said. “The first ranking in our eyes came out with our top 25.”
The final one — the only rankings that matter — will be announced Dec. 3.
By then, this may all sort out neatly, given the fact only five of the 12 teams initially ranked in the top four ended up making the playoff. Or, Alabama and Georgia — on track to meet in their conference title game — could make the SEC the first conference to ever send two teams to the playoffs, and independent Notre Dame could be the first team outside of the power conferences to earn an invitation.
Several teams will fall from contention soon enough, but chaos is clearly in sight.