The second CFP rankings of 2019 will be released Tuesday night. I am sure there will be little controversy, and not everyone will be pleased.
Last week was just a starting point in the CFP rankings on a six-week journey that is sure to fluctuate weekly. There were a couple of interesting rankings, but for the most part the Committee’s first edition made sense.
This week there is little uncertainty about which teams will be in the top three. LSU, Ohio State and Clemson and probably in that order. It is how the rest of the Top 10 is structured where people will lose their minds.
Fan bases are incredulous. No justification will suffice for leaving their team out of the mix. It is a spectacle worth of an Oscar.
Side note, scenarios only matter to teams that have a loss. Want to make the committee’s job easy? Don’t lose.
I digress.
Alabama and Penn State losing cracked the door wide open for debate and I am curious how the committee reacts.
The most important questions I want answered is will Alabama drop below other one-loss teams?
I am part of the group that believed the Crimson Tide’s chances of making the playoff would be very difficult if they lost to the LSU Tigers at home.
Nick Saban and the program’s history have been solid reasons for giving the team the benefit of the doubt in the past. Not now.
While the score was close, a boneheaded defensive play kept it from being a 12-point win. The Tigers racked up 559 yards and 46 points.
If you are comparing stats, that is more than Clemson put on them last January.
The Crimson Tide has had an incredible run. The Committee needs to end it if they want to be taken seriously.
Outside of Alabama, I want to see if the Committee values Baylor’s and Minnesota’s unblemished records to rank them at four and five, or at least ahead of all the two-loss teams?
I think both will be ahead of the two loss teams and possibly ahead of one-loss teams from their own conference.
I think they have earned it. The higher rankings are now justified.
Back to the Top 10.
I think the CFP Committee’s order will be:
1. LSU
2. Ohio State
3. Clemson
4. Georgia
5. Oregon
6. Utah
7. Oklahoma
8. Alabama
9. Minnesota
10. Baylor
It will be interesting to see the second CFP rankings. Will the Playoff Committee value a team’s performance this season over another’s track record? We will find out soon.