Jake Russell
@oreojakesters
Tuesday, we’ll get our first look at the College Football Playoff Rankings. There is, of course, the AP Poll, the Coaches Poll, FPI, and many of our other arbitrary rankings, but these are the most fun week-to-week because it is precisely the same room of shadowy dark figures that are likely old white men in a room pulling the strings that would tell us if the season ended today, these would be the twelve teams competing. A lot of things will play out by December and will make these ratings null and void, but we at least get an insight into what’s valued.
For the twelve spots in the college football playoff, here are twelve things to watch ahead of our list of first rankings on the year on Tuesday.
- The Miami and Notre Dame head-to-head conundrum
Both have two losses. Notre Dame lost head-to-head to Miami at the beginning of the year and Texas A&M, who may win the SEC, and Miami has done nothing but trip on banana peels ever since. How are they going to value head-to-head while one team is clearly trending in the opposite direction?
- Texas A&M’s strength of schedule
Right now they’re ranked behind Ohio State and Indiana, but could they potentially jump Indiana with the hardest strength of schedule in the nation and answering every question thus far with the SEC next to their name?
- The value of BYU’s 0 in the loss column
BYU is the surprise “we have 0 losses still” team thus far in the season with 8 wins in a Big 12 that has now cannibalized itself and thus lowered the values of its wins a bit by comparison to some of the other powerhouses that unfortunately accumulated a loss. How high will the fighting Cougs and Bear Bachmeier be in the rankings just because they haven’t tripped up yet?
- Georgia Tech vs Virginia
Georgia Tech and the fighting Haynes King and the Virginia Cavaliers believe it or not stand at the top of the ACC with only one loss, Georgia Tech’s coming this past weekend in a game that King was so adamant about playing despite him apparently urinating blood all week as the Tim Tebow warrior of college football. They’ve got the eye test, whereas Virginia has snuck by with several one-possession wins in a season where they were projected towards the bottom of the conference. Who gets the edge in their ranking with two teams that have an NC State loss?
- How low is the ACC team..?
That ACC automatic bid is looking worse and worse with how far the conference has fallen where as many as 6 teams likely could take that spot. Are they the 11th spot? Are they lower than the G5 team? How low is it exactly?
- The muddy middle of Georgia, Oregon, and Ole Miss
All three are blue chip programs, all three have had some sort of stumble in a prime time matchup, and all three are vying for that higher spot right behind Alabama as the fifth best team. How do they view these teams’ resumes? Is it Oregon losing to Indiana as the best loss? Is it Georgia losing narrowly to Alabama and finding ways to win narrowly? Ole Miss would have to be behind Georgia because of the head-to-head loss, but are they still behind BYU?
- We’re sure the G5 spot is Memphis… right?
All of the G5 autobids in contention will have at least one loss. Memphis is still in the AP poll, but has a loss to UAB. Are they still the pick over JMU, USF, or North Texas?
- The Texas situation
It’ll play itself out with the upcoming games against Georgia and Texas A&M as they vie for an SEC Championship appearance, but with one of their two losses being against Ohio State and how good Arch Manning looked last week, are they going to say the preseason #1 overall team deserves a high ranking despite Texas fans finding ways to stay alive in miserable, underperforming fashion?
- The number of B1G teams and SEC teams
You know, for a sense of conference pride.
- Who could be the fourth B1G team?
It’s looking like it’ll be Ohio State, Indiana, and Oregon, but could Michigan or USC potentially jump the other two loss teams down the stretch of the season to get a fourth spot?
- The tasty first round matchups on campus
Last year was our first taste of it. We get to fantasize about those first round environments again. We’d be looking at playoff environments at the Hedges with Georgia, Autzen with Oregon, Ole Miss, and BYU. How electric would those environments be?
- Which fan base will Kirk Herbstreit aggregate this time?
He’s going to say something that will make a fan base think they hate his team and eventually send him threats. It’s just a matter of who.
