Buckeyes Drop Four Spots To No. 6 In Penultimate College Football Playoff Rankings

The Buckeyes have fallen four spots to No. 6 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.

The rankings release came Tuesday night, and saw Georgia remain at No. 1, while Michigan moved to No. 2 following their 30-24 win over previous No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday.

Washington, Florida State, and Oregon round out the top five.

Following the release, CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan took questions via his weekly teleconference to explain the committee’s thinking on this latest batch of rankings.

The highlights of everything he had to say can be found below the rankings.

Boo Corrigan Updates

RedditCFB asks how everyone is doing, then asks why Ohio State dropped four spots for a close loss at Michigan? “You’re not specifically at one team as much as you are a group of teams and the teams around them…” Oregon continues to impress with the win over Oregon State. They held OSU to 7 points.
The Athletic asks somebody to give him a sense of the pecking order and criteria for next week, and what happens if Alabama and Texas win next week? CFP director Bill Hancock says the data points and tie-breakers are not prioritized. They are up to each voter on how to weigh the factors.
Obviously you thought highly of Ohio State all season long, but how does OSU being out this week complicate the head-to-head decisions after this weekend? It happens every year, something along these lines. Typically there is one team that doesn’t play that is examined. The other teams have an extra data point to evaluate. It’s never one single data point, “it’s everything combined, and it’s 13 different people,” committed to doing it the right way and getting it right.
Take us through the discussion between Oregon, Ohio State, Texas, and Alabama. There was a lot of conversation early and then at the end of the day yesterday, then again today. “Everyone’s weighing in to everything” on their opinions on each of those teams. “All 11-1, good wins, all have lost games.” After taking their time going through it, they ended up where they did with 5, 6, 7, and 8.
A question about Liberty and Tulane and the Group of 5 — is it as simple as looking at “if Tulane wins, they’re in” or does it matter if Liberty looks dominant this weekend? They will approach it the way they always do — by looking at everything. Liberty plays on Friday and Tulane plays on Saturday. They will compare those two specifically on what they have done over the course of the entire season.
What does the committee see as the gap between Washington and Oregon, and then Oregon and Ohio State? “Not to be funny, but you can’t get closer than 3 and 4, and 5 and 6.” The rivalry games last week are crazy and how they’re played. The players all know each other, they’ve all been recruited by the same schools. It’s a long conversation that they have and everybody weighs in. The advantage they have this year is they have a lot of great teams to decide from.
Heather Dinich asks if there are any concerns about Florida State’s performance against Florida: “They’re a different team, Heather. It’s pretty obvious.” Just as any team would be if they lost their quarterback. They put up 24 points in a win in Gainesville. They are evaluating the body of work throughout the season while the QB situation is a “big part of the conversation.”
Is it most deserving or four best? Bill Hancock steps in: “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.” They also make sure they do talk about recency bias and “check that at the door.” “Thirteen weeks is what’s important.”
Is there a road for Alabama? “Good question, fair question, but it’s kind of asking us to project.” The goal is to watch games. They don’t project or do hypotheticals.
How much separation does the committee see between Texas and Alabama? “It is close.” Two really good teams that have had great years. “We’ll just continue to evaluate.”
Does Texas’ head-to-head win carry as much weight now as it would have if it happened more recently? “Head to head is head to head no matter when the game is played. That’s how we look at it.”
Will they consider bowl locations with their rankings of 1-4? No, they don’t worry about that when it comes to rankings. They won’t try to put Michigan and Washington at 2-3 so that they play in the Rose Bowl, or Georgia and FSU at 1-4 so they play in the Sugar Bowl. Hancock explains that the bowl assignments comes down to the bowl preference going to the No. 1 team.
Is there a path for SMU or any of the other Group of 5 champions? Yes, the goal is to find the best group of five time.