Ohio State, Oklahoma battle for final playoff position
The anticipated feud in the ether of statistics between those longtime empires Oklahoma and Ohio State began in earnest Tuesday night, when the College Football Playoff selection committee placed them at Nos. 5 and 6 in its penultimate rankings - arranging that the two might vie for the coveted No. 4 spot come the weekend without, of course, playing one another on any field.
The Sooners (11-1) moved up from No. 6 to No. 5, and the Buckeyes (11-1) leapfrogged from No. 10 to No. 6, each taking up a position within reach of the fourth and final playoff spot, and enabling their populous fan bases to get a jump on the interregional wrangling.
No. 1 Alabama (12-0), No. 2 Clemson (12-0) and No. 3 Notre Dame (12-0) remained unchanged for the fourth consecutive week. No. 4 Georgia (11-1) rose by a notch to replace Michigan (10-2) after the latter suffered an unfathomable rout Saturday at Ohio State. By the time the 13-member committee issues its final list Sunday at noon Eastern time, Georgia will have faced Alabama in the SEC championship game, Oklahoma will have faced No. 14 Texas (9-3) in the Big 12 championship game, and e
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Ohio State will have faced No. 21 Northwestern (8-4) in the Big Ten championship r t game.
Provided all three favorites win, the discussion would figure to shift to deciphering the difference between Oklahoma and Ohio State and their -
- watery defenses for No. 4, with the flickering possibility e of the continued inclusion of a two-loss Georgia, should it battle Alabama closely.
As to how close Oklahoma and Ohio State stand going into the weekend, committee chairman Rob Mullens said, “I really don’t have a measurement for closeness,” a departure from previous committee chairmen who shared descriptions of the closeness between teams.
Mullens, the athletic director at Oregon, fielded several questions and spoke many words about the Oklahoma-Ohio State question before finally zeroing in to say, “Oklahoma has a little bit stronger schedule than Ohio State at this point.” He mentioned twice that Oklahoma’s only loss came at a neutral site against Texas on Oct. 6, a hint that Ohio State’s lone loss, 49-20 at Purdue (6-6) on Oct. 20, put a bigger dent in its CV. With a return bout against Texas, Oklahoma has a chance to mimic what Georgia pulled off last year, using a conference championship game to avenge a defeat.
Of Oklahoma’s offense, ranked No. 1 nationally at a staggering 8.92 yards per play, Mullens said: “When you look at the numbers, while their defense has been a challenge, their offense has been superior. And they find a way to win the games as their offense carries them, and that lines up with their talent.” Of Ohio State’s 6239 win over Michigan on Saturday, Mullens said, “It was their most complete game of the year, an impressive win, and the committee certainly took note of that.”
The committee’s 13 members are five former coaches, five athletic directors, one university president, one former college and NFL player (Ronnie Lott) and one jour- nalist/professor. The athletic directors include those from Oklahoma (Joe Castiglione) and Ohio State (Gene Smith), and Mullens said, “When we agree to serve on this committee, we all check our hats at the door” in “a very strict recusal process,” which involves being “removed from the room if your team is up for discussion.”
Unlike the previous two weeks, the committee had intricate deciphering to do this Monday and Tuesday. It had kept an identical top 10 from Nov. 6 to Nov. 13, and an identical top seven from Nov. 13 to Nov. 20, but that stagnancy finally fizzled. The teams that held down Nos. 4, 7 and 8 last week - Michigan, LSU and Washington State - all lost. Michigan dropped only to No. 7, LSU (9-3) only to No. 10 and Washington State (10-2) to No. 13.
Nudging into that vacuum was Central Florida (11-0), which rose from No. 9 to No. 8 as it lost its prized quarterback, McKenzie Milton, to a severe injury Friday against South Florida, a factor the committee had to weigh in its assessment of the team’s quality. The Knights will play Memphis (8-4) for the American Athletic Conference title Saturday in Orlando with backup Darriel Mack Jr., who has completed 21 of 43 passes for 174 yards this season. UCF has won 24 consecutive games across two seasons but had not risen above No. 12 in the committee rankings until this year, when it hopped from No. 12 to No. 11 to No. 9 to No. 8 - the highest ranking attained by a school not in the Power Five, the sport’s top tier.
“It was discussed,” Mullens said of Milton’s injury. But he noted that UCF outscored South Florida 28-10 with its backup, and he said, “While they may have had to change their approach, it was still effective.”
In the annual race for the lucrative New Year’s Six bowl berth among the Group of Five, the sport’s second tier, UCF holds a gaping lead over the next-highest team, No. 22 Boise State (10-2). Since the introduction of the four-team playoff concept with its Group of Five berth concept tucked in, Group of Five teams have gone 3-1 against their richer brethren.
Florida (9-3) wedged in at No. 9, having defeated No. 10 LSU on Oct. 6, even as the committee bizarrely tucked Kentucky (9-3) at No. 15, six spots behind a Florida team that it defeated on the road Sept. 8. Mullens cited “body of work,” an argument that collapses when comparing the team’s schedules - suggesting Florida might have benefited in committee minds from its larger football brand name.