The first College Football playoff rankings of the season were released Tuesday night which to no surprise stirred up plenty of controversy.
First here are the rankings:
- Clemson
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Notre Dame
- Baylor
- Michigan State
- TCU
- Iowa
- Florida
- Stanford
- Utah
- Memphis
- Oklahoma State
- Oklahoma
- Florida State
- Michigan
- Ole Miss
- Texas A&M
- Mississippi State
- Northwestern
- Temple
- UCLA
- Toledo
- Houston
I’m not sure there’s much argument with the top three. Sure Ohio State hasn’t looked impressive but they’re undefeated and the National Champions. Meanwhile Clemson at No. 1 and LSU at No. 2 are both undefeated while playing in major conferences so again you get it.
What isn’t clear is the Alabama Crimson Tide have managed to slide into the top four relying on name recognition alone. Currently the Crimson Tide are 7-1 and according to the playoff committee deserve to compete for the National Championship over Baylor, Michigan State, TCU, Iowa, Memphis, Oklahoma State, Toledo and Houston who are all undefeated and ranked within the top 25 of the CFP rankings.
Long: Baylor and TCU's explosive offenses gave them the edge over Iowa despite Iowa having more quality Ws.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 4, 2015
You can sell me on Toledo and Houston not getting the consideration, I get it they don’t compete in major conferences, but are the Crimson Tide more deserving than two Big Ten undefeated teams or two undefeated Big 12 teams, one of which you already screwed over last year?
Lets keep in mind who the Crimson Tide lost to a 7-2 Ole Miss team who managed to get blown out by Florida and dropped a two possession game against Memphis. Not to mention Bama barely got by Tennessee at home a week and a half ago and are coming off a bye this week. So despite already losing a game this season, the Crimson Tide’s last impression for the committee was a five point home win over an unranked Vols team… Makes sense. But making sense is something that’s totally out the window for this first set of selections which would explain a one loss Notre Dame team sitting at No. 5.
