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Gary Barta, CFP selection chair, explains how head-to-head results affect rankings
By Keith Farner
Published:
Gary Barta, the chairman of the College Football Playoff committee, spent part of his Tuesday night explaining how Michigan could be ranked ahead of Michigan State despite the Wolverines’ loss to the Spartans only a couple of weeks ago.
That led to other debates from other conferences, such as in the SEC, as division matchups down the stretch, especially in the West, could lead to more of these kinds of debates.
“It’s considered in all ranking discussions. It’s not the sole data point that we use,” he said on the media teleconference after the latest rankings reveal. “For example, if someone has one loss, we don’t automatically say that the undefeated team is ahead of the one loss. Same thing with head-to-head. It’s considered. It’s looked at, but it isn’t the only piece of information that we make the final decision upon.”
Barta then went into more detail, and said there’s a subjectivity to it.
“We look at common opponents, we look at head-to-head, we look at strength of defense versus offense, 13 people watch the games,” Barta said. “… It’s considered in every case. That doesn’t mean in every case head-to-head is going to put one team over another. This is my third year on the committee, and I can tell you that I know numerous examples where head-to-head is overcome by other things, and in this ranking alone this week, it’s no different. There are some head-to-heads where one team is (inaudible), there’s some where they’re not, and that could still change as the year goes on.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
