Greg McElroy stunned by CFP rankings reveal: ‘I really agree with the rankings’
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Greg McElroy doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with the College Football Playoff committee’s rankings.
Tuesday night, which yielded the first CFP Top 25 of the season, was one of the few times the ESPN college football analyst has had no issues with what he’d seen. Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M, and Alabama were ranked Nos. 1-4 as the SEC boasted a total of 9 ranked teams.
Outside of Texas A&M and Alabama, 2 other SEC teams — Georgia and Ole Miss — are projected to make the 12-team bracket. Texas and Oklahoma are considered “first two out” teams.
“I actually really agree with the rankings. I mean, I don’t have like a huge issue outside of maybe a team or two that might be slightly too high, too low,” McElroy said. “This ranking makes sense.”
That’s not to say that there won’t be plenty of negative sentiment in the coming weeks. We could even see some as soon as the following week, when the second set of rankings comes out. When the final rankings are released on Nov. 30, there’s sure to be one fanbase, or several fanbases, who will feel that their team has been snubbed.
For now, though, there’s relative calm across the world of college football, with McElroy finding very few qualms about the initial Playoff rankings.
“This is the first time I feel like in an initial ranking where it’s like, ‘Alright, I understand why they did that. That makes sense to me. They’re putting premiums on how a team’s looked, how consistent they’ve played. They’re penalizing teams that haven’t played anybody just yet,'” McElroy said.
“I just think they did a great job this week, and I’m, like, flabbergasted by it. It’s a tip of the cap to the committee.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
