SEC
Final College Football Playoff Rankings Top 4 revealed
The College Football Playoff committee has released its final top 4 rankings of the 2020 season.
At no surprise the top 2 are the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. However, all eyes were on No. 3 and No. 4, with 4 teams — Ohio State, Notre Dame, Cincinnati and Texas A&M — vying for the 2 slots.
The Playoff selection committee ranked 6-0 Big Ten Champion Ohio State No. 3 and 10-1 Notre Dame No. 4. The Buckeyes won the Big Ten Championship Saturday, while the Irish were blown out by Clemson 34-10 in the ACC Championship Game.
The final 2020 College Football Playoff top 4:
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide
#2 Clemson Tigers
#3 Ohio State Buckeyes
#4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Texas A&M finished ranked No. 5 by the selection committee.
The committee has been a bad joke all year. No use changing now.
Agreed
Ohh this is so exciting, same match ups as 2 years ago. I’d rather have seen Cincinnati get in over us then Ohio State. Oh well looking forward to a bowl win and getting last few recruits for another good class.
Gig’em
Following the committee’s logic, Cincinnati should have bumped ND, not OSU. Among the non-conference champions, though, ND beat one of the three other teams in the playoff, which would make it tough for them to push TAMU in at ND’s expense.
If nothing else, we get to watch Bama curb stomp ND again. Always a delight.
And Ohio State whine again
Get your point, Pine, but I’m guessing the whining is coming from Oh State fans? Maybe message boards? As a neutral observer, the only whining I’ve seen THIS season came from Dabo on the Rich Eisen show. He ought to know better by this point in his career. Just my two cents.
Yes, that is who I refer to. But also Day. He set the tone with his comments after the game last year.
BTW, “Mr. Pine” is appropriate.
They truly disrespected Texas a&m like that. What a joke.
Have to disagree. From a total season standpoint, ND deserved in.
No they don’t. They beat a depleted Clemson team and UNC. Whoopi.
^Exactly! They could have stayed home in protest so a deserving team could play.
Pine, would you not say that TAMU is a completely different team then they were from week 2. ND you know exactly what you have right now and had to keep starters in the whole game just not to loose by over 30+
Neither TAMU nor ND are conference champions, which is clearly something the committee values in the process. Cincinnati prob got jobbed on this one.
Yes, I would. But what many don’t understand is that unlike the AP poll, the committee doesn’t assess how a team has played recently. They evaluate the entire season of work for arriving at their decision.
The committee USA joke. You defending them is a joke.
Committee is a joke
Howl…you keep suggesting Cincinnati should have merited a slot over OSU. That is such a ridiculous statement based upon all the metrics. Cincinnati is a joke outside of the Power 5. They played a weak schedule, no Power 5 teams, and have a weak SOS. They can play Coastal Carolina for the Insignificant Bowl.
13 members of the committee. 7 are active Athletic Directors. 2 are former players. 2 are former head coaches. 1 is a sports columnist/professor. 1 is a retired Army General. Their objective folks is to protect the “brand” known as College Football. They work to pick four teams that have a great fan base that have some degree of credibility. The power 5 schools have no national fan base, so they have no chance. Ohio State has a huge fan base, so they are in. SEC will get one always due to the huge fan base. Notre Dame has a huge fan base. Right now Clemson is popular. Why do you think they post the early polls? It’s to get you used to folks being “good”.
Looks like they abdicated their responsibility and took the easy route. SEC, ACC and B1G champions and the one team that beat one of those three.
Is it the “easy route” or the logical one? Should they pick non-conference champions? Bama, Clemson & Ohio State make sense to me. ND, er, not so much.
Easy route, not necessarily logical. It was easy because of the way the season played out, combined with the market value of the teams chosen.
I get your point, but if we’re looking for a basis to understand how the committee chose the teams, three of them are conference champs. Plus, Oklahoma, another conference champion, vaulted to 6th place. They’ve always said it matters and their selections have generally (though not always) conformed to that logic. Agree that market value plays a role, sometimes subtly, which may explain why Cincinnati got the shaft.
Also explains why A&M got the shaft. First one-loss SEC team to not make the playoff. Historical omission.
Well after Alabama annihilates Notre Dame they will play Clemson again.
We will all see the committee got it wrong when Bama.and clemson boat race ND and Ohio St. The Big 10 is also changing the rules on the covid protocols from 21 days to 17 days to insure Ohio St gets all of its players before the Jan first semifinal game. Big 10 sure knows how to change it up to fit their narrative. It wont matter the way they’re playing. Clemson is going to blow them our.
Yeah, the B1G will probably change the protocol to match what SEC/ACC. Though, I’m not sure why that’s such a big deal. ACC changed some rules this season, too. It’s just a very messy season.
If those idiots in the street riots can protest bullsh*t we as CFB fans need to protest this horrible playoff system
Recruiting is another issue that may warrant closer inspection.
I hope they find that Pruitt cheated worse than Hugh Freeze so we can
#FirePruitt
And then
#HireFreeze
If they don’t expand to an 8 team playoff people will lose interest. Notre Dame just got completely manhandled by Clemson, Ohio State looked like hot Garbage against Northwestern and had only played half the games other schools have. Meanwhile you have an undefeated 9-0 Cincinnati on the outside looking in, yes they’re not the same caliber as Bama or Clemson, but they’ve earned every right to be in the conversation. You got A&M sitting at one loss early who has played solid football and ran the table ever since.
I don’t care about blue bloods or history, put the schools in that earned their right.
Not Ohio State’s fault that Covid wiped out a third of their season. They won the games they played and are conference champions, like Bama and Clemson. I think you have a good point on ND. Cincinnati checks more boxes, which makes the ND inclusion look sketchy.
Not everyone else’s fault that Ohio State still gets the benefit of the doubt
Bama, Clemson and Ohio State and a couple of others (Oklahoma comes to mind) habitually get the benefit of the doubt, primarily because these teams win, often, and that’s been the case for generations. Bama, Clemson and Ohio State have all won natty during the CFP era.
Oklahoma doesnt get the benefit of the doubt. All the years they made the playoffs they have deserved it. No one was more deserving of those spots thos years
That’s the problem. Ala/Clem/OSU/ND get automatic bids with LSU/Oklahoma getting the alternate bids. If you aren’t a brand name you’re out of luck.
lol…….. A&M was robbed!!!!
It’s quite simple the only way we’ll make the playoffs is by winning the SEC in dominating fashion and the only way we’d do it without Bama sneaking in at 4 is if we blow them out. Easy right?
If you aren’t “The Big 4” you are on the outside looking in. Only 2 schools have any outside shot ,LSU/Oklahoma. “They” will only give you admission if you have brand recognition, no matter how many games you play or how many games you win. Reminds me of the 70s when tv networks only showed about 4 schools. Too bad A&M and everybody else.
I might add Georgia and ND to that list, but your point is well-made.
Hate to say it but the 4 best teams got in.
6 games warrant nothing. But again if Ohio St had only played one game “They” would let them in.
That’s just your opinion. I would take UF, UGA, and the Aggies straight up against ND. ND is probably most similar to Auburn in the SEC.
I hate to say it, but there’s not much difference between Notre Dame and Texas A&M. Both teams’ losses were lopsided ones to a team you could easily argue is the best in the country. That said, I would’ve much preferred to see A&M get in, or even Cincy. Either might’ve gotten thumped, but I’d prefer that to even the slimmest possibility of a third Clemson-ND game.
Notre Dame
10 total wins
4 wins over opponents with a winning record
2 wins over a ranked opponent
8 wins by at least 14 points
.419 – Win percentage of opponents Notre Dame defeated
16.6 – Point differential on the season
Only loss was by 24 points, to the then #3 team
Texas A&M
8 total wins
2 wins over opponents with a winning record
1 win over a ranked opponent
3 wins by at least 14 points
.375 – Win percentage of opponents Texas A&M defeated
10.6 – Point differential on the season
Only loss was by 28 points, to the then #2 team
Good points. Neither is a playoff caliber tm. Could’ve flipped a coin and the loser had no gripe. ND is better for ratings so that’s another nugget to their side of the ledger in addition to what you listed.
What would NDs opponent win percentage be if they didnt factor in the non-conference cupcake games the ACC played?
Regardless of any subjective views that one may have on the total depth of the SEC, the fact is that the ACC has 5 teams in the top 25, and the SEC has 4.
What will be telling with respect to the SEC depth will be how their teams with lesser W/L records (like Arkansas, Miss, Kentucky, UT, even USC, etc) fare in their bowl games.
I believe if you take those cupcakes away ND only has 2 wins over Teams with winning records… Same as Texas A&M.
Cupcakes by definition don’t have winning records, so I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.
And for the record, their only non-conference opponent was 1-8 South Florida. So Notre Dame still has four wins over teams with winning records.
Actually, Im talking about taking all the cupcake games out of the equation for the whole ACC. if you take the non-conferance cupcakes away from ND’s opponent’s records, that would make Pitt and BC .500 teams.
So they would only have 2 wins over teams with winning records. North Carolina and Clemson(whom they got trucked by in the rematch)
Oh, I see now. Still, that’s rather deep in the weeds of hypotheticals.
Yeah, I have no problem with ND getting in. I just think They are a lot more similar if you look closer at their measurables. I would have preferred Coastal or Cincinnati to have got in. I think the outcome would have been the same either way.
Why are you comparing ND and A&M? Ohio St doesn’t deserve to be in.
Your gonna get that win loss % for every conference. That’s why Out of conference games are so important. If you did an sec vs acc challenge this year it would be heavily favored in the SEC. why teams overall are just better.
Would’ve been good for the conf to get 2 tms in again but there’s no major slight here. Resume’s are nearly identical. I’m sure ratings had something to do with it given there’s no tickets to sell.
Actually, for those that want expanded playoffs, having A&M get in over ND would’ve set that in motion. Given the TV networks want ND and the rest of the nation has anti-SEC bias, leaving ND out would’ve created a bigger firestorm. I’m sure the committee considered that.
Only one network covers the playoffs.
Booooooooooo….Boooooooooo……..Boooooooooo !
Florida is a better team than both Ohio State and Notre Dame, both of whom looked terrible yesterday. But Florida wasn’t a preseason top 5 media darling, which is the surest ticket to the playoffs.