Ohio State Falls To No. 6 In Penultimate College Football Playoff Rankings

The Buckeyes’ 13-10 loss to Michigan on Saturday has dropped them from No. 2 to No. 6 in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings. The final rankings will take place Sunday afternoon following a weekend of conference championship games.

The full rankings can be found below. Following the rankings reveal, CFP committee chair Warde Manuel took part in a teleconference to discuss the rankings. As expected, the Buckeyes were a hot topic. The full details of everything Manuel had to say can be found below the rankings.

Warde Manuel Updates

• How much do rivalry games get discussed in terms of “extra” difficulty? “We recognize when there are rivalry games and we talk about those games and we realize they are highly packed with emotions.” They recognize the cliche about throwing the records out for rivalry games, but they still evaluate it as they do all other games.
• How will you evaluate SMU if they lose? That’s something they will decide in the room at the conclusion of those games. They can’t look into the future and know how the discussion will go, it depends on how the outcome of the game goes.
• Could Clemson’s results change South Carolina’s resume? How does the committee view static teams? They have already included those results in the rankings by evaluating how those teams have played throughout the season. “We know who has won games against teams that are in these championships.” They don’t want to punish teams who have beaten conference championship game losers for now having beaten a lesser team.
• If a team that is in the top 12 right now loses, will they fall out of the top 12? They could, but the teams that are not playing this week won’t change places. Tennessee and Indiana will not flip spots, for instance. There is nothing else to add to the evaluation to those teams? Could SMU drop below Alabama if the Mustangs lose? “Potentially, yes.”
• Chattanooga writer asks about Ohio State and Tennessee. What went into the differences in those rankings because the AP and Coaches Poll both had UT ahead. Ohio State is 2-1 against top 10 teams. One of their two losses is to the No. 1 team in the country. Tennessee has two losses against Arkansas and No. 5 Georgia. “They’re very close. It was a constant conversation as to how we saw both teams.”
• How did you factor in losses between Alabama and Miami? They talk about the wins and the losses, how the teams played, where they played. Both teams are very good. The committee ranked Alabama one spot ahead of Miami, but the committee also likes Miami.
• On the conversation between Ohio State and Georgia: Georgia’s two losses were to ranked teams, both on the road. Ohio State has two great wins and a loss on the road at Oregon and a loss at home to Michigan. Both are complete teams. “It was back and forth between the two. The outcome of the vote was very close.” Tremendous game by Georgia back and forth against Tech. Ohio State had a back and forth game as well.
• Why does Miami stay ahead of Ole Miss and South Carolina? “These are not easy decisions for us to make.” Ole Miss has a loss to Kentucky and LSU. Miami is a top offense in the country. It’s really close. It’s not just one data point over the other.
• Penn State writer asks about a team that loses a conference championship having an advantage over a team that hasn’t made the championship game. The committee has great respect for making a conference championship game, “but we’ve been asked to rank the top 25 through the end of the championship weekend.”
• If Georgia wins Saturday, would it be logical to flip UGA and Texas, or is it more complicated than that? “I don’t know if it’s complicated…” but it’s not that simple. They have to evaluate all of the results of the games.
• They don’t worry about rematches or pitting conference teams against each other. The conference commissioners have asked them to ignore those factors. Just rank the teams from 1-25.
• James Crepea suggests that if UNLV and Army lose and drop out of the top 25 and they move in some ACC teams, wouldn’t that help Miami’s resume? … long pause from Warde Manuel. Manuel again asserts that they’ve already factored that into the rankings. (His answer was whispered to him from the media assistant.) To be clear, would Miami not be helped by having two more teams like Duke and Louisville ranked? That is correct. That has already been factored in.

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