UW focused on Indiana rather than rankings
MADISON – As Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst walked into the interview Monday, he was greeted with a playful question designed to elicit a light-hearted but frank response:
Are you going to tune in live Tuesday to see the first College Football Playoff rankings revealed or are you going to DVR the show and catch it later?
Anyone who has spent a scant five minutes around Chryst knows the answer is: Um, neither.
Chryst couldn’t care less about rankings and will spend every possible minute this week preparing for Indiana, a point he reaffirmed by responding to the question with some playful but colorful hand response.
“Perfect,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said
with a smile when told of Chryst’s silent but stark response. “I wouldn’t expect anything else. That’s classic.
“He is probably the perfect guy for that scenario. He’s not into the media.”
The first rankings are scheduled to be revealed at 6 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.
UW (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten), No. 4 in both the Amway coaches poll and The Associated Press poll, faces host Indiana (3-5, 0-5) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“The only thing that really matters,” Chryst said, “and that you try to influence is: ‘How can we make the most of the moments that we’re in? And how can we continue to get better as a football team?’
“And that takes a ton of energy. That is where I think all of our focus needs to go.”
Not surprisingly, his players agree.
“I won’t see it,” left tackle Michael Deiter said when asked if he will watch the show. “I’ll ignore it. And it’s not like it is a conscious thing to make sure I don’t see it.
“I think we have a group of guys that they’re not going to get caught up in all the playoff noise. It’s not time yet. We have Indiana.”
What is the right time to pay attention to the rankings?
“I think it would be after the Big Ten championship,” Deiter said. “That’s the only time it would matter.”
The College Football Playoff committee is scheduled to release six rankings – Tuesday, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, Nov. 21, Nov. 28 and Dec. 3. The last date is the day after the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis.
UW, ranked No. 4 in both major polls despite not having faced a ranked team, is projected to be outside the top four in the initial College Football Playoff rankings. The Badgers' season to date is similar to that of the 2015 Iowa team.
Iowa opened the season unranked but won its first eight games, with victories over No. 19 UW and No. 20 Northwestern.
The Hawkeyes were ranked No. 9 in the first playoff rankings. Six unbeaten teams were ahead of Iowa, including No. 7 Michigan State. Two one-loss teams were also ahead of the Hawkeyes – No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Notre Dame.
Iowa was No. 5 in the second and third rankings and No. 4 in the fourth and fifth rankings.
The Hawkeyes met No. 5 Michigan State in the Big Ten title game. The Spartans rallied for a 16-13 victory to qualify for the playoffs, and Iowa settled for a matchup with Stanford in the Rose Bowl.
The lesson is that the rankings likley will change over the next month-plus.
“There’s always a huge buzz around it and everyone wants to find out what’s going to happen,” Edwards said. “Just wait until the end of the year. You’ll find out what happens. It’s not that big of a deal.”