Don’t worry, but CFP committee still has Wisconsin tight with OU
Nothing much changed in the College Football Playoff rankings this week. Including this. Selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt continues to assert that No. 5 Wisconsin is close with the top four teams and especially close with No. 4 Oklahoma.
Don’t worry, Sooner fans. No reason to believe that OU could be left out of the four-team playoff, so long as the Sooners win out. But OU has every reason to be puzzled.
Wisconsin is 11-0, but its résumé remains dubious. The Badgers have defeated one team ranked in the committee’s top 25 — No. 22 Northwestern 33-24 back in September, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Badgers’ strength of schedule ranks 62nd among major-college teams.
OU is 10-1, with a 38-31 home loss to Iowa State, but the Sooners have three wins over top 20 teams — at Ohio State, at Oklahoma State and TCU. All by double digits.
“There is very narrow separation between teams one through five,” said Hocutt, the athletic director at Texas Tech. “Very close there at the top.”
Hocutt said there was “considerable discussion and very close separation between Oklahoma and Wisconsin.” He said the committee actually put the résumés of Alabama, Miami, Clemson, OU and Wisconsin side-by-side for comparison.
“There’s not a significant separation between one through five. Wisconsin, solid win against Michigan. They’re playing good defense. Oklahoma, they are scoring a lot of points, a very talented and fun to watch offense, and the two road wins they have, against Ohio State and Oklahoma State, continues to be significant. Extremely close between 4 Oklahoma and 5 Wisconsin.”
That, of course, makes no sense. Wisconsin’s résumé is not strong.
Elsewhere in the rankings:
•Oklahoma State fell to No. 19, after its 45-40 loss to Kansas State. The Cowboys rank in the middle of the teams with 8-3 records. Among 8-3 teams, Mississippi State is 14th, Michigan State is 16th, LSU is 18th, OSU is 19th, Stanford is 21st, Northwestern is 22nd, South Carolina is 8-3 and Virginia Tech is 25th. The Cowboys don’t have a marquee win, so OSU has little complaint.
•TCU was given no love by the committee. The Horned Frogs remained No. 12, and Hocutt said teams 9-11 (Ohio State, Penn State, Southern Cal) remain close. But TCU is 9-2, just like those teams, and the Frogs are coming off a 27-3 domination of Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Last week, we heard that Clemson’s 27-24 loss at Syracuse in October was judged differently because the Tigers played the second half without injured quarterback Kelly Bryant and that Bryant was hampered in the first half. OK. But in Lubbock, TCU played without starting quarterback Kenny Hill Jr., yet the Horned Frogs didn’t miss a beat, routing the Red Raiders behind true freshman QB Shawn Robinson.
If you cut Clemson some slack for losing on the road without its quarterback for half the game, why no extra credit for TCU for winning on the road — against a team better than Syracuse — without its quarterback for a full game? And it appears TCU got no extra credit, not even being lumped into the group at 9-11.
•The committee swapped Miami and Clemson, moving the Hurricanes to No. 2. Miami rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Virginia 44-28 Saturday, while Clemson beat the Citadel of Division I-AA. Hocutt said Miami’s performance impressed the committee. “We see characteristics of a championship team,” Hocutt said of 10-0 Miami. “They got down 14 points and came back to win in a convincing manner. They have a very slim margin.”