Rece Davis offers up his thoughts following release of CFP rankings
By Keith Farner
Published:
The debate about the College Football Playoff rankings has begun, and the host of the weekly show and ESPN’s “College GameDay” has weighed in with the arguments.
Rece Davis joined Birmingham-based radio station WJOX 94.5 FM program The Roundtable for a segment Wednesday morning, and would only partially agree that this is the easier top fours to be chosen. The top six teams released Tuesday night were Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Notre Dame, Michigan and Georgia.
“I would to a degree,” Davis said. “I had Michigan number four. I think LSU has accomplished more in terms of strength of schedule, but I think Michigan is maybe a half-tick better than LSU. Maybe I’m wrong, and you’re splitting hairs among those three. I have no issue with the way you stack up any of those teams, but I would include Michigan and depending on what happens this weekend, you might be able to include Georgia in that mix too, and I don’t think Oklahoma is that far off.”
Davis added that there is a significant drop off from Alabama and Clemson, to the rest of the top teams. Â But he added a caveat that he’s not guaranteeing anything to happen in Baton Rouge this weekend.
“Contrary to anything Dabo (Swinney) said on the show last night, Alabama and Clemson have their buses and then the rest of y’all are on the other buses,” Davis said. “But Clemson’s on the upfront bus with Alabama.”
He later pointed out that there have been only three undefeated teams to debut in the initial rankings in the playoff era, and none of them won it. So he said he’s banking on some of the teams losing.
“Now if we do, and that happens, Oklahoma, I suspect would be left out in favor of Ohio State or Michigan, whoever wins that game,” he said.
Davis discussed that there is significant turnover on the committee from last year, and he believes there is an “alpha” voice in the room, but he hasn’t identified that person yet.
Davis said he has a lot of respect for LSU, and his earlier expectations were between a one-loss team, and a several loss season that many predicted.
“It really shows you what happens when guys pull together and you have a leader,” Davis said. “Have a plan everybody believes in on both sides of the ball. They found the right guy in Joe Burrow. Joe’s stats aren’t great … but he’s seemingly made every clutch throw. He moves the chains with his feet. He has command of the team, and all of those things count.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
