TCU snub shows weekly College Football Playoff rankings were a sham, whether Ohio State was deservin
The false incumbency of its weekly rankings made the college football committee look ridiculous Sunday afternoon. They may have made the right decision in choosing Ohio State as their fourth and final team. Maybe not. But they will be pilloried up and down Interstate 35 in Texas from now until forever, and no one can blame Baylor or, especially, Texas Christian University for the hard feelings.
The committee’s effort to gin up conversation every Tuesday night ceded the high ground to the Horned Frogs. The committee ranked TCU third on Tuesday. TCU crushed Iowa State by 52 points on Saturday. On Sunday, they had dropped three spots. They moved from playoff team to playoff observer, and all they did was win by seven touchdowns and a field goal.
Based on the season, the committee’s final choices were all defensible at worst. No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Oregon were clearly the country’s best. No. 3 Florida State has won 29 straight games, whether those wins were shaky or not. Ohio State has won 11 straight and could seemingly plug in your next door neighbor and drop half a hundred. Their 59-0 beatdown of Wisconsin at a neutral site was one of the most impressive victories of the season. Baylor and TCU have arguments, too, but they are not ironclad.
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However, based on the weekly rankings, the committee’s final choices made no sense at all. Forget Ohio State; why did TCU get dumped behind Florida State? On Tuesday, the Horned Frogs were deemed better. Again: They won by 52 points. Georgia Tech is a quality opponent, but did FSU’s two-point victory mean more than TCU’s blowout?
The chair of the committee, Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long, did not immediately address FSU’s passing of TCU. But he did say Ohio State’s impressive final statement made the difference for moving the Buckeyes into the coveted fourth spot.
“Once we saw the body of work, it was about Ohio State’s move,” Long said on ESPN’ selection show. “It was really about Ohio State and not about TCU.”
Without directly saying it, Long indicated TCU and Baylor and been punished for not winning a conference championship game – or even winning a conference championship outright. The Big 12 is the sole big-five conference without a title game, and they couldn’t even decide on a champion. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, to Baylor Coach Art Briles’s ire, declared Baylor and TCU co-champions.
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“We were faced with co-champions,” Long said. “That’s what was given to us by the conference.”
The only criteria listed on the college football playoff’s web site are all purposefully vague and even referred to as “obvious factors:” win-loss records, strength of schedule, conference championships won, head-to-head results and results against common opponents. See that third one? “Conference championships won.” Neither Baylor or TCU could claim they had done that, thanks to their own bumbling commissioner.
Ohio State jumped in the rankings, Long said, because of their annihilation of Wisconsin behind third-string quarterback Cardale Jones. If Baylor and TCU had a rematch next week in a title game, perhaps they could respond. But they played just 12 games and waited.
“Ohio State’s performance in a 13th game gave them a quality win against a highly ranked team that allowed them to move into that fourth spot,” Long said.
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If we had never seen inside the committee’s thought process this season, Ohio State’s place in the rankings would make perfect sense. The 11-game winning streak and the wins over Michigan State and Wisconsin are enough for the committee to build a case for them, despite their loss at home to Virginia Tech, easily the worst defeat of any team under consideration.
But we did see the committee’s thought process, and so we cannot help but question Ohio State’s place in the field. While everyone else salivates over Urban Meyer vs. Nick Saban in New Orleans — one of the two national semifinals — the question of why TCU dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 will linger in Texas all year long.
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