The Rankings Are In

The College Football Playoff rankings were announced on Tuesday night and they should have come with a guarantee: These will make you unhappy, or your money back.

Sure, Clemson is pleased. The 8-0 Tigers are No. 1 in line for the four playoff slots. Everyone else can gripe for a week.

Ohio State, 8-0 and the defending national champion, was No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll and has been No. 1 in every subsequent poll. The CFP committee put the Buckeyes third, behind LSU (7-0) and ahead of Alabama (7-1). This will surely change next week, because Alabama and LSU play on Saturday and both can’t win and Alabama already has a loss.

Where is Baylor, 8-0 No. 2 in the AP poll? Sixth. Where is 8-0 TCU? Eighth. Where is 8-0 Memphis, which beat Ole Miss (which beat Alabama on the road)? Memphis is 13th, behind five teams that have a loss.

The 12-member CFP committee is beholden to no previous polls or rankings and it values strength of schedule. Baylor and TCU fall behind in this area. Ask which college teams they’ve played and the answer is likely to be Barber or Clown (and a tip of the helmet to The Simpsons for that one). The beefy part of Ohio State’s schedule is also ahead (Michigan State, 8-0) and, if it reaches the Big Ten championship game, likely Iowa (8-0).

There’s still plenty of football to be played and five more rankings, the final one on Dec. 6 setting the four-team playoff field. We’ll be arguing … and watching … and arguing.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .