Greg Barta and the rest of the CFP committee have solidified themselves as a national joke after these final rankings. I do believe the one thing they got right was the top four teams, but the rest of the rankings are a mess. Alabama has been the best team in the country consistently and is clearly the top seed. Florida and Ole Miss have both proven that if you want to beat Bama, you have to get in a shootout with them. Alabama’s offense is going to score no matter what, so you have to be able to put up points to contend. As good as their offense is, their defense really isn’t all that the media wants to say it is. After the Ole Miss game, Alabama’s defensive numbers improved and everyone was talking about how elite their defense is. However, these “amazing” defensive games came against terrible SEC teams like Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Arkansas (all with only three wins). When they have played teams with decent offensives, like Florida, the defense has not been able to make stops.
One could make an argument for Ohio State above Clemson, but Clemson has played almost twice as many games as the Buckeyes and just blew out fellow playoff team Notre Dame, so I think that ranking is fair. I fully support Notre Dame getting the final spot over A&M. Although Notre Dame did just get beat by Clemson, they previously beat them earlier this year and have a win over a top North Carolina team. Absolutely no one in the media wanted to mention that Texas A&M only has TWO wins against teams with a winning record and an all SEC schedule means nothing if the teams aren’t any good. Texas A&M deserves to be left out of the playoffs.
I was not shocked at all that undefeated and conference champion UC did not receive a playoff bid, but their final ranking was flat out wrong. The committee placed them at 8th, behind a three loss Florida and two loss Oklahoma. Florida lost for the second week in a row, but stayed in the same place in the rankings. The committee said that since they “played Alabama close”, they’re better than UC. The committee can use whatever excuses they want, but one thing is clear: a Group of Five team will never get a playoff bid or the respect they deserve. University of Central Florida’s Athletic Director said this after the final rankings: “How do you have a sport where a team can win every single game they play and not have any chance to compete in what you’re calling the postseason?” UC won every single game, yet was denied a chance to compete in the postseason.
Oklahoma shot up in the rankings after winning the Big 12 championship. They lost two games early in the season, but have won seven since. However, many of their wins were close and were not against elite opponents. They barely won the Big 12 Championship Game, needing an Iowa State interception at the end to seal it. If UC or even a Big 10 team had lost to a team like Kansas State (who finished 4-6), they would not finish at number 6. Their play has not shown that they are the sixth best team in the country.
The Big 10 got screwed in the final rankings. Besides Ohio State at number 3, the Big 10 does not have another team in the top ten. Although the Big 10 played less games than other conferences, it is not the team's fault, and many of them proved their legitimacy in the shortened season. Everyone wants to keep saying how much more conferences like the SEC played, but that really is not the case. Northwestern played eight games, only one less than Georgia, Texas A&M, and most of the SEC teams. Northwestern was treated very differently than those two teams however. Northwestern has an almost identical record to Georgia, 7-2 compared to 8-2, but actually has two top 25 wins and kept the game close with Ohio State. Georgia, meanwhile, has two blowout losses and no top 25 wins. Despite all this, Northwestern finished 14 and will miss a New Year’s Six Bowl, but Georgia came in at 9 and will play in the Peach Bowl.
The other Big 10 team that got done dirty was Indiana. Indiana finished eleventh in the rankings, but will not be playing in a New Year’s Six Bowl either. They beat every team they played soundly, and their only loss came in a close game to Ohio State. They tried to play Purdue twice in the final weeks of the season, but both meetings were canceled due to COVID, and consequently they only played six games, which has clearly hurt them. The committee did not just pass up IU for a big bowl game, but put Northwestern in a better bowl than them, even though Indiana is higher in the rankings and had a closer final score with Ohio State. Indiana will be playing Ole Miss in the Outback Bowl. This game might be exciting, but after the season IU has had, it’s very disappointing for them to be playing a team that is below .500.
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