One vs Many

The first set of the College Football Playoff rankings dropped this Tuesday, and I decided to compare them to my weekly rankings. Now, I am in no way perfect, and definitely have conflicting views compared to the committee, but let's see where we both stand this week.

My Rankings	Committee's Rankings
Tennessee Georgia Ohio State Michigan TCU Clemson Alabama Oregon Ole Miss USC UCLA Kansas St North Carolina Utah Penn St Illinois LSU Oklahoma St Wake Forest Syracuse North Carolina St Tulane UCF Washington Liberty	Tennessee Ohio State Georgia Clemson Michigan Alabama TCU Oregon USC LSU Ole Miss UCLA Kansas St Utah Penn St Illinois North Carolina Oklahoma St Tulane Syracuse Wake Forest North Carolina St Oregon St Texas UCF

We are both in agreement with Tennessee at 1, but then don’t see agreement until Oregon at 8. The committee has Clemson ranked 2 spots higher than me. Although the Tigers have a nice collection of ranked wins, they did not look very dominant in any wins, and in my opinion, should have lost to Wake Forest and Syracuse. Compare that to fellow undefeated teams Michigan and TCU, who have throttled a couple of ranked teams, and I don’t believe Clemson has been better than them.

The biggest difference no doubt is me having LSU at 17 compared to the committee having them at 10. I don’t think the Tigers have been better than any of the 2 loss teams above them, with Utah and K-State having a couple of big ranked wins, and the Tigers got walloped by Tennessee at home, something that no doubt resonated with me, and showed in my rankings. I also value the 1 loss Power 5 teams of North Carolina and Illinois over LSU.

The Tar Heels also stick out in my rankings. Despite a lack of competition, no ranked wins, and a string of close wins against inferior opponents, the Tar Heels offense is rolling and will be a tough beat to any team they see in the ACC Championship.

We each have differing PAC-12 teams in the bottom of the rankings, I have Washington, the committee has Oregon State. The Beavers travel to Seattle to play the Huskies this Friday, with the winner likely to be ranked, and the loser will find themselves on the outside in.

Texas is ranked by the committee, despite 3 losses. The Horns are very loved by the advanced metrics, especially ESPN’s FPI. I see the Longhorns as a team that is too inconsistent for the top 25, compared to my choice of Liberty. Despite their lackluster competition, the Flames one loss is a one point defeat at Wake Forest, and the Flames take on Arkansas this week in a game to cement their top 25 status.

Overall, besides LSU and North Carolina, my rankings and the committee’s are not that different. We could see a massive shake up at the top, with 2 heavyweight SEC matchups. The first features our unanimous first ranked Tennessee traveling to Athens to take on a fellow top three team Georgia, and the annual matchup between Alabama and LSU, with this matchup taking place in Baton Rouge.