Buckeyes Remain At No. 2 In Latest CFP Rankings As Big Ten Holds Four Of Top Five Slots

The third iteration of the College Football Playoff rankings have been released and for the third week in a row, the Buckeyes are ranked No. 2 behind the Oregon Ducks.

Ohio State is followed in the top five by Texas at No. 3, Penn State at No. 4, and Indiana at No. 5. The full rankings can be found below, as well as highlights from this week’s teleconference featuring CFP Committee Chair Warde Manuel and Executive Director Rich Clark.

The latest episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast can be found below all of it as Tom Orr, Kevin Noon, and Tony Gerdeman react live to the latest rankings and answer questions from the livestream viewers.

CFP Rankings Week Three

Teleconference Updates

• What is the gap between Texas and Georgia, aside from the seven spots? Georgia has a very good win at Texas, but as the committee analyzed Texas’ body of work, they are still deserving of being No. 3. They have a top five defense and one of the best passing offenses in the nation. This is nothing against Georgia but they did struggle at Ole Miss. They did have a great win this past week at Tennessee.
• An Atlanta writer asks about Georgia as well, was there discussion about moving Georgia up based on the win over Texas and the other ranked teams they’ve had to play in comparison to all of the teams ranked ahead of them not playing as many ranked teams: The answer is yes, they had a long debate as a committee about Georgia and other teams. “Intense conversations.”
• On BYU’s drop: They have had some good close wins, but the tough loss at home against Kansas hurt. “We give a lot of credit when teams win.” But some of those close wins were an indicator of where BYU should be in the rankings following the loss.
• When you have a game like Ohio State and Indiana playing, are there certain things you’re looking for as you watch it? “We’re looking at a lot of variables. How do the offenses play? How do the defenses play?”
• Asking about Ole Miss moving up two spots despite not playing a game: BYU and Tennessee lost, plus they had a great performance against Georgia in their win over the Bulldogs. They’ve been impressed with their defense and with QB Jaxson Dart. Two close losses to Kentucky and LSU.
• The assessment on the Irish? Since the loss to Northern Illinois, they have performed really well. They have the win over Texas A&M to start the season. The dominating win over Navy was impressive. “We’ve been impressed with how Notre Dame has recovered since that loss (to NIU).”
• On Boise State: They’ve performed very well against the competition that they’ve had. The loss at Oregon by three points was a good performance. Ashton Jeanty is leading the country in rushing. They have been a great, solid team all year long. On UNLV cracking the Top 25 when they’re the third-place team in the MWC right now: Two close losses this season. OT at Syracuse and a loss by 5 points to Boise State. Their QB has really performed as a passer and rusher.
• Georgia writer checks in: You said the committee values wins, but with the logjam of SEC teams, you’ve got Georgia who has played five of the top 17 teams, how do you weigh their strength of schedule and still have them below the rest? They’re all playing different schedules, so they have to rely on how the teams are playing and who they’re playing. Strength of schedule is not the only assessment that they make. Georgia is behind Bama and Ole Miss and they’ve had head-to-head losses to those teams, so that’s going to be a factor as well.

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