College Football Championship Rankings Reactions: USC was ranked too high, and Michigan was ranked too low in the original top 25.
The first rankings for the College Football Playoff came out on Tuesday, and there is a lot of excitement at the top. Georgia came in at No. 2, behind Ohio State, even though they had been No. 1 in both lists all season.
Behind those two teams—which played each other in the national championship of the Peach Bowl last year—are Michigan, Florida State, as well as Washington. The last five teams in the top ten are Alabama, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Ole Miss.
It’s also always interesting to see who wins the Group of Five spot for the New Year’s Six bowls. Tulane from the AAC is in first place with just one loss, ranking 24th. That puts them one spot clear of the Mountain West Air Force, who have never lost.
For sure, there will be a lot of chaos among now and December 3’s Selection Sunday, when the teams are chosen. But the group did make some mistakes in the first version that they put out.
The returning SEC West winners are, as expected, the committee’s top-ranked two-loss team.
Their decisions are skewed by the fact that LSU lost to both Florida State as well as Ole Miss, two ranked teams.
However, LSU ought to be ahead of Missouri, which it beat in a home game, and ahead of Louisville.
You could make a strong case for why the Trojans ought not to be ranked at all, but the voters still seem to be drawn in by how offensively strong the team is.
However, USC’s defense still doesn’t have a clear identity. They are placed 113th in the country in scoring defense as well as 114th in yards allowed, and they have no wins over ranked teams.
On Monday, the official preseason teachers poll regarding the 2023 university football season came out, and it showed some interesting results. As expected, Georgia won first place, with Michigan coming in right behind at No. 2.
With three teams in the nation’s top five, the SEC showed how strong it is, and Texas A&M came out on top as the fourth best team in the state.
I don’t believe that. The Crimson Tide don’t look like the third best team in the country. Instead, they look like the fifth best.
Alabama lost Bryce Young as well as Will Anderson. LSU, who beat Alabama last year, got back Jayden Daniels and Harold Perkins, along with more talented players. Alabama should be behind LSU in the rankings.
Also, Ohio State should be ranked higher than Alabama. The Buckeyes’ quarterback will always have Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, as well as Julian Fleming open to catch the ball. It really doesn’t matter who starts this year.
At running back, TreVeyon Henderson as well as Miyan Williams are also very dangerous together.
CBS Sports didn’t like that the USC Trojans were ranked sixth; they thought Lincoln Riley’s team was too high. I disagree. The Trojans are where they should be, in my opinion.
When the Heisman winner is at quarterback, that you’re in the running. The Trojans lost two games by a single point each and went 11-3 last year.
They’ll have trouble on defense, but Riley has always had trouble on defense. Their only goal this year is to beat their opponents.
Concerning Clemson, they might not be thought of as underrated, but I would not be surprised if they went 12-0 and made the playoffs for college football.
That poll puts Texas A&M at No. 25. Why, though? Why does everyone think the Aggies are going to be one of the top 25 college football teams? Last year they went 5-7 and always don’t do well.
The South Caroline Gamecocks deserve to be ranked much more than Texas A&M does. It doesn’t matter who’s ranked No. 25.
In both the Associated Press’s and Coaches’ Polls, BYU is ranked No. 8. However, the Cougars were only ranked No. 14 in the playoff ranks.
The undefeated Cougars aren’t even in a good situation to make it to a New Year’s Six bowl, which usually goes to teams in the first 12 spots. This means that BYU is out of the running for the playoffs.
Even worse, the Cougars are behind teams like No. 9 Georgia (5-2), No. 11 Oklahoma (6-2), and No. 13 Iowa State (5-2), all of which have lost two games. The country was shocked by how poorly BYU was ranked, and many were upset with how the committee judged the Cougars.
CNN’s Kirk Herbstreit said, “I’m still blown away. We have BYU down at No. 14 and Indiana at No. 12.” “BYU’s AD needs to call Seattle and get into as many games as possible.”
Utah, Michigan State, Arizona State, Minnesota, Missouri, and Stanford were the six Power 5 teams that were on BYU’s planned 2020 schedule.
All of those games were canceled when the Pac-12, Big Ten, and SEC switched to league-only schedules because of COVID-19.
As an independent, BYU needed to redo almost the whole schedule, but they still got Boise State, Houston, and Navy, all of whom are good teams.
The Cougars beat all of them badly on the road but have now scored 428 points more than their opponents.