The first set of College Football Playoff rankings is always going to be intensely dissected. It offers fans and analysts a first look into what this year’s committee will value, what it doesn’t give as much credence to, and how teams inside certain conferences stack up with one another.
As Tuesday’s initial reveal concluded, everyone was left perplexed. That includes Paul Finebaum, who blasted the rankings on Get Up.
“It is about as discombobulated a ranking as I’ve ever seen,” Finebaum said. “I would use words like ‘the committee was drunk’ but that would be inapproprate… trying to make sense out of this would literally drive me crazy.”
One of the only clear aspects of the rankings is that strength of schedule will be given more weight than in year’s past. That could be to a fault, though, with two-loss teams slotting ahead of some one-loss teams or schools they lost to in-conference. Finebaum particularly called out the committee’s placement of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“Alabama has no business being where they are,” Finebaum said. “That is truly absurd to have Alabama that far ahead of Tennessee, a team that just disemboweled them a couple weeks ago… I’m hoping that this was some late Halloween trick on America.”
The Crimson Tide can justify their slot by beating the LSU Tigers on Saturday. That contest, and many others, will have a drastic impact on the next set of rankings, which will come out on Nov. 10.
