LSU Deserved No 1 – But Should Georgia Be Ahead Of Alabama?
The second set of CFP rankings are out and the SEC continues to dominate with two teams in the top four, and LSU deservedly moving into the No 1 slot. Penn State losing to Minnesota means that the Big Ten lost one of their top four rankings, however, Ohio State remains well placed and only lost the top spot thanks to LSU beating Alabama in the biggest game of the season so far. Defending Champions Clemson seem to be find ing their form and Trevor Lawrence, who looked like their weakest link has now had three consecutive games without an interception. At 10-0 and with a relatively straight forward remaining slate of games they should complete a second consecutive unbeaten season on their wat to a playoff semi-final.
With regard to the top four, we are a little puzzled by Alabama being moved down to five and Georgia replacing them in the playoff picture. The CFP seems in most cases to rank on quality of loss or head to head when there is a tie, however here they have demoted Alabama for losing at the No 1 Team, while Georgia’s loss was to South Carolina, who are 4-6 and just lost at home to a Sun Belt team!
The PAC 12 seems to have clawed its way back into contention – despite Utah & Oregon having the week off. Again we would question why they are ahead of an undefeated Minnesota who just knocked off the previous weeks No 4. We would have the Golden Gophers ahead of both, and might even slot Auburn ahead of them at this stage given they hold the head to head over the Ducks and despite having two losses they were too Florida & more recently LSU – and that was by a field goal.
The only other undefeated team Baylor are similarly not getting too much love despite them having beaten Oklahoma State & Iowa State in their 9-0 start. They are behind two-loss Florida & Auburn, which doesn’t bode too well for the Big 12. One Loss Oklahoma are ranked three places ahead of them and if as is likely the Sooners beat them twice in the divisional game and conference championship will it give them the boost needed to get past the SEC & Big Ten. If they split the games then they are definitely out.
The New Year Bowl slots are still up for grabs and it looks like Notre Dame despite ranking 16 could still be alive for an Orange Bowl slot. They have already beaten Virginia & Virginia Tech so if Clemson makes the playoffs it would not look good slotting one of those two ahead of a 10-2 Fighting Irish especially given neither is currently ranked.
The race for the Group of Five Cotton Bowl place is still wide open and it’s nice to see Appalachian State breaking into the rankings. Two road wins against Power Five teams proved to be enough for the selection committee to take notice finally. With Cincinnati & Memphis still to meet and SMU and Navy also still on the schedule this is going to get very interesting. Speaking of SMU we were a bit surprised to see then drop out despite winning especially when there are four three-loss teams in…
Anyway, the week’s rankings are below:
CFP Rankings Entering Week 11
1 LSU 9-0
2 Ohio State 9-0
3 Clemson 10-0
4 Georgia 8-1
5 Alabama 8-1
6 Oregon 8-1
7 Utah 8-1
8 Minnesota 9-0
9 Penn State 8-1
10 Oklahoma 8-1
11 Florida 8-2
12 Auburn 7-2
13 Baylor 9-0
14 Wisconsin 7-2
15 Michigan 7-2
16 Notre Dame 7-2
17 Cincinnati 8-1
18 Memphis 8-1
19 Texas 6-3
20 Iowa 6-3
21 Boise St. 8-1
22 Oklahoma State 6-3
23 Navy 7-1
24 Kansas State 6-3
25 Appalachian State 8-1
Header Image Mile Atanasov/Shutterstock.com
