Ranking Texas over Georgia proves CFP committee is completely useless
The latest College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night, and there were some significant shakeups to the bracket. Boise State leapfrogged BYU for the fourth first-round bye, while Tennessee fell to the wrong side of the at-large bubble after a road loss to Georgia on Saturday. The Big 12 and ACC took a big hit, while the SEC and Big 10 continue to yell about who, exactly, is benefitting from bias on the part of the selection committee.
But even more outrageous than what changed in the new rankings was what stayed the same. Once again, the committee gave the Texas Longhorns a pass, leaving them snug at No. 3 after a ho-hum win at Arkansas. And once again, the committee shafted Kirby Smart's Georgia, despite an impressive win over a top-15 team — and, crucially, the head-to-head edge over the Horns.
College Football Playoff rankings going into Week 13
Below is the full top 25 entering Week 13. Texas sits at No. 3, the second-highest one-loss team behind only Ohio State. Georgia, meanwhile, jumped ahead of the Vols back into the top 10, but they still sit behind the two-loss teams they've lost to: Alabama and Ole Miss.
- Oregon Ducks
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Texas Longhorns
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Indiana Hoosiers
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Miami Hurricanes
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Boise State Broncos
- SMU Mustangs
- BYU Cougars
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Colorado Buffaloes
- Clemson Tigers
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- Army Golden Knights
- Tulane Green Waves
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Missouri Tigers
- UNLV Rebels
- Illinois Fighting Illini
Which creates an untenable situation, with the Dawgs a full seven spots behind a Texas team they dominated in Austin — and which hasn't done nearly enough to earn this level of benefit of the doubt from the committee.
CFP selection committee has no excuse for putting Georgia so far behind Texas
To be clear, not all of Georgia's complaints about its CFP treatment are justified. Indiana deserves respect until it proves otherwise; if you win all your games, especially if you win them as convincingly as the Hoosiers have, that should earn you a ticket to the dance, no matter how loudly SEC fans might holler otherwise.
The gap between Texas and Georgia, however, is something else entirely. There is a big black mark on the Longhorns' record: That 30-15 loss to the Bulldogs, a game in which they were physically dominated and could have lost by more if Georgia QB Carson Beck had managed to get out of his own team's way.
Yes, Texas still has just one loss, while Georgia has two. But that seems like a facile way to view these rankings. The Longhorns have played exactly two Power 4 teams currently above .500; the Dawgs, meanwhile, have played five. Is navigating the likes of Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Arkansas really more impressive than suffering a close loss on the road against Alabama? It would be one thing if this were a purely hypothetical exercise, if Texas had the weaker schedule but had yet to prove that it might not be as good as its ranking suggests. But in its one real test this year, it fell totally flat.
Which isn't to suggest that Texas deserves to be outside the field entirely, or that Georgia should vault all the way to No. 3; that would put Kirby Smart's team ahead of Bama and Ole Miss and create a whole new set of problems. It's just to say that 1) the Longhorns should not be the shoo-in the committee clearly sees them as right now and 2) in our new conference realignment world, trying to sort through all these competing resumes is bound to lead to some infuriating results.
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