With their 24-22 victory over No. 5 Notre Dame earlier this season, they have the most significant win of any of the top contenders.
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The first College Football Playoff rankings of the year were released on Tuesday and the committee may regret one of its moves.
Ohio State, though, doesn’t have the resume, but it does have the National Football League talent. That means when it comes to the Buckeyes it’s ALL about speculation.
So if the committee is going on eye test and talent … It marks just the third time in history Clemson has been No. 1 in an in-season major poll. Understandably so, considering Alabama has a loss and they were favored ahead of eight unbeaten teams. There really isn’t a great answer why Alabama is now in the playoff.
Baylor’s current strength of schedule is ranked No. 109.
The BCS system showed too much favoritism to teams from Power Five conferences – especially the SEC.
Florida at No. 10?
The first two out: 5) Notre Dame and 6) Baylor.
One thing we do know for sure: as soon as the top four teams were announced Tuesday, there was outrage from those outside the SEC for the league to have two teams in the playoffs.
Alabama lost to Mississippi in September and then Florida pounded Ole Miss in Gainesville. Throw in a win this weekend over one loss Temple, a win three weeks ago over a USC team that has since padded their own resume, and another win last month over one loss Navy and Notre Dame has built itself a nice resume so far despite a few of its opponents like Georgia Tech not living up to expectations. Utah’s best shot at getting in the playoff is to win the rest of its games and beat Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game. There is nothing like a four-point win over Temple to impress the judges. Beating Louisville and Miami is nice, but not really. If Mississippi wins out, they could very well be in the SEC Championship game due to their win over Alabama. Arkansas’s other two losses are to Alabama and A&M, divisional foes.
Memphis It was the big question coming into the first rankings – where would Memphis be ranked? The Bears are also, at mid-season, turning to a first-year freshman quarterback to lead them through November. Now it’s up to Memphis to beat the Cougars and Owls on the road and Navy at home to fly up the rankings. And on Wednesday, head coach Nick Saban got his first chance to discuss his team’s No. 4 ranking with the media. Memphis is a prime example. Well, there are actually “experts” who have gone on the record to say if Ole Miss wins out and wins the SEC title game, the Rebels-and the conference-will be left out of the playoffs entirely. But other than that, ‘Bama has been pretty good and their opponents combined record is 61-36, yes that’s a lot better than Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, TCU and Baylor and like it or not, that’s a big thing they look at.
The Gators’ loss, by a touchdown at CFP No. 2 LSU while starting a new quarterback, certainly would qualify as a better loss than Alabama’s. Ohio State at this point wasn’t in the top 10, and many other national champions were also under-appreciated. Ole Miss (CFP: No. 18) 6.
The big surprise was Notre Dame at No. 5. TCU (CFP: No. 8) 13.
Michigan State’s schedule is stronger than both TCU’s and Baylor’s.
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In 2011, Oklahoma started No. 1 in both polls and ended No. 16. Stanford (CFP: No. 11) 18.
