Rejoice Ohio State fans because the Buckeyes are your No. 1 team in the initial release of the College Football Rankings. The committee was impressed with the Buckeyes’ résumé and body of work compared with the other unbeaten Power Five teams (Florida State, Georgia, Michigan and Washington) to have OSU on top as it stands today.
After each rankings release by the committee, the executive chair, Bill Hancock, and the committee chair, Boo Corrigan (on Halloween night no less), spend some time on a conference call to talk to media members and field questions about what into ranking the teams. We like to join in.
We are especially interested in what the committee has to say about Ohio State, so we pull out those comments and share them with you so you can get a bit of a peek into what went into the conversation surrounding OSU in the room.
Here’s everything the College Football Playoff committee said about Ohio State after the release of the initial rankings.
Introduction
BRETT DANIELS: I’d like to welcome everyone to the first College Football Playoff selection committee teleconference for the 2023 season. Joining us tonight is Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair.
BOO CORRIGAN: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here. It’s good to be back in Dallas for our first meeting of the selection committee. This is my third year on the committee and my second as chair.
I’m grateful to my fellow committee members for their hard work, as I witnessed over the last couple of days.
The committee has three new members this year. We have 10 who have served on the committee for the last year or two. As always, the new members participated in a mock rankings session earlier this fall, and that helped them hit the ground running.
You have seen our rankings. With several 8-0 teams, the committee debated it all. Ohio State was ranked No. 1, due in part to their big wins against Penn State and at Notre Dame. Georgia No. 2 is an excellent team and they keep winning decisively. Michigan was ranked 3. The committee was impressed at how they’ve dominated their opponents. Florida State was ranked 4 with their win against LSU helping make their case.
As I’ve walked you through the top four, I want to emphasize how much time we take for all the rankings. Each ranking is important. We are aware how closely fans track these rankings and care about their teams. As much debate as we have about the top four, we equally debate the remaining 21.
I won’t say this to you every week, but it is important for the press to know how we work and what our criteria and protocol is. The committee begins each week with a blank sheet of paper. What happened last year does not matter.
The conferences teams play in does not factor into our decisions. We don’t look at public polls. Instead, we are instructed by our founders of the playoff to consider teams’ records, their strength of schedule, their head-to-head matchups, and results with common opponents.
With these factors in mind, the committee members have lively discussion and then make their rankings based on 13 subjective expert college football judgments.
We watch games all season. We have considerable data and statistics on our screen and at our disposal. Our job is to get it right.
Thank you for listening, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
On Ohio State being No. 1 despite the offense not being as explosive
What was said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, to your point, and thank you for asking, the win against Penn State, to win at Notre Dame, the win at Wisconsin, they’ve proven they can do it at home, they’ve proven they can do it on the road. They have explosive plays. Down a receiver, Marvin Harrison, Jr., who’s clearly one of the top players in the country.
As we look at it, as we evaluate it, it is part of the overall evaluation, but a top-five defense that’s given up about 10 points a game really does play into it, as well.
To pick completely on one side when the other side is so dominant, and the offense is really, really good, so we’ve got to take all that into account as we’re looking at it, and we came to the conclusion as a committee that they deserved the No. 1 ranking.
On ranking Michigan No. 3 in comparison to Ohio State's strength of schedule
What was said
BOO CORRIGAN: It’s a factor in what we’re looking at. Again, when you can point to from a Georgia standpoint Florida and Kentucky, with Ohio State when you can point to Penn State, the win at Notre Dame, the win at Wisconsin, while UNLV, Rutgers, Nebraska, Minnesota are good wins, I think looking at it in total, even with the dominance offensively and defensively, defensively giving up about six points a game, it really turned the committee’s head from that standpoint, but that was the reason they came in at third.
On how Notre Dame's loss to Ohio State factored into the Fighting Irish's ranking compared to Louisville
What was said
BOO CORRIGAN: Well, again, I think there’s head to head, as we’ve talked about before, is always going to be a factor, and I think the 33-20 win that Louisville had over Notre Dame, the additional loss to Ohio State, again, really good football teams as we’re looking at it, but to this one, we talked a great deal about the Louisville win over Notre Dame, the Pitt game. For Louisville, their running back, I think he ended up with two carries and was out, but again, looking at the total body of work, we were more comfortable as a group with Louisville ahead of Notre Dame.
On how much Ohio State missing some offensive stars played into the conversation about the Buckeyes' ranking
What was said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, no, it certainly is a factor. We look at all conditions around games and make sure that we have the latest information, whether that’s coming from the conference, as we talk to the conferences.
But again, we still viewed Ohio State as the top team in the country based on their wins, based on their defense, and again, their offense is doing well enough to win games and be 8-0.
On why Washington and Florida State didn't get a boost like Ohio State did because of quality wins
What was said
BOO CORRIGAN: Again, I think as you look at the full body of work, Florida State being No. 4, the win over LSU, the win against Duke, kind of a front-loaded schedule, if you will, they’ve looked really good. Offensively putting up 41 points a game. Their defense is ranked in the top 20. But again, as we looked at it overall and went through the process, we came out with Ohio State 1, Georgia 2, Michigan 3, Florida State 4.
With regards to Washington, huge win over Oregon, who we have at No. 6, but in looking at that, the game most recently, two most recent games at home against Arizona State and on the road at Stanford from a committee standpoint gave us some pause and put them in at No. 5.
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