Well, here we are, less than a week removed from Ohio State football’s third-straight loss to Michigan. Being that it’s Tuesday late in the season with just the conference championship games to go, it also means we have to suck it up and see how far the Buckeyes fell in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
There’s still one set of rankings to go after this weekend, but it doesn’t look good for the Buckeyes, who fell to No. 6, behind another one-loss team, Oregon.
As always, the CFP committee seems to prioritize what it wants to use as the rationale for rankings when they simply believe they should be based on the eye test. However, at least it faces the music after each rankings reveal to discuss what into the decisions to place teams in the order that they appear.
That’s exactly what happened on the conference call following the latest rankings, and since we are are part of all that fun, we like to bring to you what Executive Director Bill Hancock and committee chair Boo Corrigan had to say about the process of ranking teams.
Here is everything they said about Ohio State following the fifth set of rankings that have set the baseline for what we’ll see after all the dust has settled this weekend.
Introduction
What the CFP Committee said
BRETT DANIELS: I’d like to welcome everyone to the penultimate College Football Playoff selection committee teleconference for the 2023 season. Joining us once again tonight is Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, College Football Playoff selection committee chair.
On why Ohio State dropped so many spots even with a close loss on the road to No. 2 Michigan
What the CFP Committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Well, again, in looking at it, you’re not looking specifically at one team as much as you are a group of teams and the teams around them and what did they do this past week. Again, specifically Oregon continues to impress, the win over Oregon State, holding a team to seven points that’s averaging 34 points. Again, a lot of respect for Ohio State being No. 6. A really good team, but to your point, it’s a one-possession game on the road, but the committee ranked Oregon 5 and Ohio State 6.
On what goes into determining the top four teams with conference championship games coming
What the CFP Committee said
BILL HANCOCK: Thank you for asking. Those tiebreaker criteria are not prioritized, so it’ll be up to the judgment of each committee member which of the tiebreakers are more important to him or her. There’s just no established priority for the tiebreakers.
BOO CORRIGAN: Just to add on to that, there’s so many great games coming up this weekend. Seven of the eight teams are playing in conference championship games, and quite frankly, we’re all looking forward to watching them. It’s been a great year this season, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it all ends up.
On how Ohio State not playing this week factors in when the other seven of the top eight teams are
What the CFP Committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Well, again, thank you for the question. It happens in my three years since I’ve been on the committee. It happens every year, something along these lines. Maybe not seven of eight playing in a championship game, but typically there’s one team that does not play, and as we look at it to your point, it is an extra data point that we have and something else that we can look at as we’re evaluating it, and as we said from the very beginning, it’s never one single data point, it’s everything combined, and it’s 13 different people that are all committed to doing it the right way, committed to doing it with integrity and committed to getting it right.
On figuring out the order of the one-loss teams (Oregon, Ohio State, Texas, Alabama)
What the CFP Committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Well, what I’d share with you, a lot of conversation early when we went into the room, at the end of the day, and then coming back again this morning to make sure that we were hearing every opinion.
The good news is everyone is weighing in to everything, where they’re opinions are, what their point is on each one of those teams. All 11-1, all with good wins, all obviously have lost a game, and looking at it and as we came through the evaluation of that, after weighing many points and making sure that we took our time going through it, we ended up where we did at 5, 6, 7 and 8.
On what the gap is between Washington and Florida State and Oregon at 3 and 4, and Oregon and Ohio State at 5 and 6
What the CFP Committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, not to be funny, but you can’t get closer than 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 in what we’re looking at, and we continue to evaluate it.
The rivalry games last weekend, they’re crazy, right? How those games are played, and typically all the young people know each other that are playing. Maybe they’ve been recruited by both schools and really looking at it.
But like I said earlier, it’s an early, it’s a middle, it’s a late conversation that we all have and make sure that everyone is weighing in to where we are and looking at them.
The advantage we have this year, and I do believe it’s an advantage, we’ve got a lot of great teams, and we’ve got a lot of great choices to make.
On recency bias and how it plays into most deserving vs. best
What the CFP Committee said
BILL HANCOCK: I appreciate your asking that question. It is best. Most deserving is not anything in the committee’s lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that’s what they do. Just keep that word in mind, best teams.
Rebuttal and redirect on recency bias
What the CFP Committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we make sure that we do talk about that. That’s something that is brought up and made sure — specifically I remember the conversation of some teams lost early, some teams lost in the middle, some teams lost late, and making sure that we’re checking all that at the door as we go through this and looking at everything and looking at — 13 weeks is what’s important, and from the very beginning of the committee, the first, second, third week matters as much as it does at the end, but you’ve got to look at overall where they are after 13 weeks.
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