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College Football Playoff rankings: CFP chair Gary Barta explains Oklahoma’s No. 8 ranking
By SDS Staff
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Oklahoma checking in at No. 8 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of 2021 was widely seen as the biggest surprise of Tuesday’s reveal.
RELATED: Oklahoma at No. 8: CFB media reacts to biggest surprise of CFP rankings
It’s no surprise that OU’s ranking was asked about during CFP chair Gary Barta’s teleconference with the media. The first question Barta took was about how the committee evaluated Lincoln Riley’s squad.
I wanted to ask you about Oklahoma. When you were evaluating the Sooners against the other teams in the top 10, how much did the advanced metrics, the relative scoring, things like that, come into play when you were looking at them?
GARY BARTA: Well, every time we put a team up for discussion, all of those metrics are in front of us on our screen, so they certainly were included. So that answers your direct question. A little bit beyond that, just looking at who they’ve beaten, Kansas State and Texas Tech, both good wins, but the strength of schedule is considered among other things. I hope that answers at least your direct question about the metrics.
They’re always up on the board, and they certainly were looked at. Oklahoma is 9-0, a great team, but I hope that answers your question.
Barta was then asked directly how Oklahoma’s “close calls” to remain undefeated factored into the No. 8 ranking.
Concerning the Sooners, their strength of schedule has not been great, and they haven’t dominated or even won convincingly most of those games. How much did all those close calls factor into where they were ranked?
GARY BARTA: Well, the committee sees all those things. First of all, they’re 9-0, and so they belong being ranked eighth. They’re undefeated, so they get a lot of credit for that. But you mentioned it, defensive struggles throughout the year certainly was discussed.
The other thing that was discussed is Oklahoma is still trying to find their identity, but certainly when they added Caleb Williams at quarterback, the committee agreed that the offense certainly changed in a positive way, but it may – we may be seeing it impacting the whole team, defense included.
Nine is where they’re at right now, but that switch in quarterback, I think everybody agreed, is potentially – it’ll be fun to watch from here forward.
Yeah, those close calls are seen by the committee just like everybody else.
Oklahoma’s ranking is sure to be one of the biggest storylines every week as long as the Sooners remain undefeated.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
