UW climbs to No. 8 in CFP rankings
MADISON – Unbeaten Wisconsin benefited from seeing two Big Ten teams suffer upsets last weekend, though the gain in the College Football Playoff rankings was minor.
UW (9-0) moved up one spot to No. 8 Tuesday night in the second rankings released by the committee.
The top five remained intact:
No. 1 Georgia (9-0), No. 2 Alabama (9-0), No. 3 Notre Dame (8-1), No. 4 Clemson (8-1) and No. 5 Oklahoma (8-1).
Ohio State (7-2), which suffered a 5524 loss at Iowa, fell seven spots to No. 13.
Penn State (7-2), which suffered a 2724 loss at Michigan State, fell seven spots to No. 14.
TCU (8-1) moved up two spots to No. 6 and Miami (8-0) jumped three spots to No. 7, on the strength of a 28-10 victory over then-No. 13 Virginia Tech.
UW hosts Iowa at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and can clinch a share of the Big Ten West Division title and a berth in the league title game with a victory. The Hawkeyes debuted at No. 20.
“Look at Iowa,” ESPN analyst Joey Galloway said during the telecast Tuesday night. “Wisconsin has to be celebrating right now. This is the best news for Wisconsin they could have possibly gotten.”
Fellow analyst David Pollack disagreed.
“They beat Ohio State,” he said of the Hawkeyes, “which was going to be (Wisconsin’s) signature win down the road.”
Galloway’s response: “It eliminates the conversation that Wisconsin doesn’t have a ranked team on their schedule.”
Northwestern (6-3) making its debut at No. 25 helps UW because the Badgers defeated the Wildcats, 33-24, in the Big Ten opener.
Several analysts have opined that a 13-0 UW team could finish outside the top four and be left out of the playoff.
UW athletic director Barry Alvarez cautioned that it remains too early to speculate on what could happen in the next month.
“You’ve got four games left,” he said, referring to three regular-season games and league title games. “The same thing that happened last week is going to happen again and again.”
He isn’t buying what some are selling, that a UW team that wins the Big Ten title and has a perfect record will be left out of the playoff.
“No one knows how the committee will vote,” said Alvarez, who served on the selection committee from 2014 through last season. “I just couldn’t imagine – and I’m not trying to build a case for us – but I couldn’t imagine where you’d have somebody go undefeated through the season, win your championship game and not be in the top four.
“I just don’t see how it could happen.” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit cautioned Tuesday night against rewarding any team solely for finishing unbeaten.
“Looking at Wisconsin right now…they’re still in a position where they’re going to need help,” he said during the telecast. “I just feel that people on the outside that watch these shows and maybe still think that computers are involved, they still think teams qualify for this if they win a Power Five conference championship.
“That’s why they get so frustrated and emotional. This isn’t Little League where everybody gets a trophy. This is about putting the best four teams in.”