By Brett Daniels
The fourth edition of the College Football Playoff rankings were unveiled on Tuesday night leaving only one more “regular season” poll before the final edition that will set the field for the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. As in previous editions of the poll, the logic (or lack thereof) that the committee uses to rank these teams is inconsistent at best and incompetent at worst.
The NEW CFP bracket projection 🏈
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— ESPN (@espn) November 27, 2024
Week 4 College Football Rankings
1. Oregon Ducks (11-0)
The Ducks are the only undefeated team from a Power 4 conference and have three quality wins against Ohio State, Boise State, and Illinois.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Oregon
2. Ohio State Buckeyes (10-1)
The Buckeyes have two quality wins over Penn State and Indiana and a close loss to Oregon on the road. Ohio State has also handled the bottom feeders of the Big 10 the way a top team is supposed to except for Nebraska.
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Who Should Be Ranked Here: Ohio State
3. Texas Longhorns (10-1)
The only criteria that the committee has for having the Longhorns ranked 3rd is the one in the loss column. Texas has zero wins over ranked teams, an opponent’s winning percentage of .477, and the 38th-ranked strength of schedule along with being dominated at home by Georgia.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Georgia
4. Penn State Nittany Lions (10-1)
Penn State is another “lazy” ranking by the committee who only seems to see the 1 in the loss column and think “they must be good”. The Nittany Lions have one win over a ranked team (Illinois) and a loss to Ohio State at home. A 32nd-ranked strength of schedule and .460 opponent winning percentage do them no favors.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Notre Dame
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-1)
Since the brain lapse in week 2 against Northern Illinois, the Irish have dominated their opponents defensively holding all under their season average for points and total yards. Notre Dame also has a victory over Texas A&M on the road to start the season.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Texas
It's in the details ✨
A closer look at this year's uniforms for the Shamrock Series presented by @MyCreditUnion1 #GoIrish | @NDFootball pic.twitter.com/5UCepLR7IS
— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) July 24, 2024
6. Miami Hurricanes (10-1)
Miami bounced back from their loss at Georgia Tech to throttle Wake Forest 42-14. The Hurricanes have yet to face a ranked opponent all season much less beat one. A loss to Syracuse or in the ACC Championship game could spell the end of the line for Miami.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Penn State
7. Georgia Bulldogs (9-2)
The 2024 Georgia team will be a case study moving forward when the playoff either collapses completely or becomes a majority SEC/Big 10 affair. This committee can’t seem to wrap its head around the concept of “playing better teams might result in more losses” vs “playing 10 tomato cans and losing to the one good team on the schedule” not being a sensible approach to evaluating teams. Replace Alabama or Ole Miss with one of the bottom tier teams from the SEC and most likely the Dawgs would be ranked #1 or #2 at worst.
Would one loss instead of two mean that this team was more likely to win a National Championship than they are now? Not at all. Georgia has three of the best wins of any team over Clemson, Texas, and Tennessee, and both losses are to teams ranked in the top 15.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Tennessee
8. Tennessee Volunteers (9-2)
The Vols are a formidable team with RB Dylan Sampson leading the SEC in yards and touchdowns and the defense 4th in the nation in scoring defense. Tennessee has one ranked win against Alabama.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: SMU
9. SMU Mustangs (10-1)
The Mustangs currently sit atop the ACC standings at 7-0 and have clinched a berth in the title game regardless of their game with California on Saturday. An early season loss to BYU is the only thing keeping SMU from being ranked higher.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Miami
10. Indiana Hoosiers (10-1)
Indiana has played one of the weakest schedules of any Power 4 conference team. A dominating loss against the only ranked team on the schedule last weekend at Ohio State should have ended the Hoosiers’ CFP aspirations but a win against Purdue this weekend should secure their place in the field.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Clemson
11. Boise State Broncos (10-1)
The Broncos struggled against Wyoming last week before pulling out the 17-13 win. A close loss at Oregon in Week 2 is the best point on the Broncos’ resume.
Who Should Be Ranked Here: Boise State
12. Clemson Tigers (9-2)
The Tigers are still alive for a berth in the ACC Championship Game after finishing the conference slate 7-1. Clemson will need a Miami loss to secure a spot in the championship game. A win against instate rival South Carolina, currently ranked 15th should secure Clemson a spot in the 12-team field.
Who Should Be Ranked here: Indiana
Some metrics matter more one week and less the next week. The one metric that seems to carry more weight than others is wins and losses which makes perfect sense on a surface level, however what that doesn’t take into consideration is who the wins are against and where and when the losses occurred. Due to the inconsistency of conference size and strength all schedules are not created equally and cannot be judged on an apples-to-apples basis, so strength of schedule must be taken into account when evaluating Team A against Team B. This is something that this committee has not done consistently.
