Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State top first College Football Playoff rankings

November 24, 2020

With No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Ohio State leading the way, the list had the feel of the usual royalty amid a season deeply unusual. The presence of a twice-routed Georgia at No. 9 not only gave the SEC four of the top nine teams; it also gave the rankings a backroom, boys’ club kind of feel.

Five spots behind Georgia and six spots beneath its Associated Press ranking sat BYU (9-0), a victim of a weak schedule cobbled together on the fly and a win over a Boise State team the CFP committee deemed “shorthanded” when it played BYU on Nov. 6, according to chairman Gary Barta, the athletic director at Iowa. On ESPN, BYU Coach Kalani Sitake called it “great motivation.” The Cougars have one scheduled game left against San Diego State on Dec. 12 but might play other games in the chaotic scheduling hunt of 2020.

That all made BYU a louder snub than Indiana (4-1), which placed a program-high No. 12 but might have craved higher after four heady wins and a thrill ride of a loss at Ohio State; or No. 13 Iowa State (6-2), which beat Oklahoma (6-2) but wound up two slots below same; or No. 20 Coastal Carolina (8-0) of Conway, S.C., which has gone far into being unbeaten while other teams have just gotten started; or No. 21 Marshall (7-0) of Huntington, W.Va., and see Coastal Carolina; or Louisiana Lafayette (7-1), which won at Iowa State but went unranked even below undistinguished seasons from richer ports such as No. 17 Texas (5-2) and No. 24 Iowa (3-2).

In a season of uneven starts and stops in which it’s hard to figure out anything, the 13-member committee met in North Texas to try to figure out something. When it placed Alabama (7-0) at No. 1 with its wins over No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 9 Georgia, that meant the Crimson Tide has held that spot in precisely half of the 38 rankings across seven seasons of the playoff concept, including the entire seasons of 2016 and 2018. When it placed Clemson (7-1) as the only team in the top four with a loss — to Notre Dame, in double overtime, while shorthanded — it gave Clemson a 30th top-four ranking, one ahead of Alabama. Clemson has appeared in the top four in 30 of the 31 rankings since 2015, excepting only the opening week of 2019, when it sat at No. 5 and caused a mild outbreak of manufactured outrage.

Those programs have appeared in five each of the six playoffs, with Notre Dame appearing in one and Ohio State in three. The two teams just outside the top four, No. 5 Texas A&M (5-1) and No. 6 Florida (6-1), would be playoff debutantes if they inch their way in.

A curiosity and a break from the royalty came at No. 7, where Cincinnati (8-0) got the highest ranking ever for a team among the “Group of Five,” the five conferences that form the bottom half of the top tier of this wacko sport. The Bearcats thus pipped Central Florida, which had gotten to No. 8 after it spent 2017 and 2018 straining for a grudging respect as it went unbeaten in both regular seasons.

The Bearcats had never been listed any higher than No. 17 in any previous year, but the underlings in general didn’t wind up any nearer the top than normal, with BYU at No. 14, Coastal Carolina at No. 20, Marshall at No. 21 and Tulsa (5-1) at No. 25.

Just behind Cincinnati sat No. 8 Northwestern (5-0), impressive enough in its ruggedness, its start and its defrocking of No. 16 Wisconsin (2-1) that it gained the highest Northwestern ranking to date, by five slots. Then after Georgia (5-2) came No. 10 Miami (7-1), a victim only to Clemson thus far.

In grappling with even more puzzles than usual, the committee had to sort out what to do with the Pac-12, the conference that produced the fewest playoff entries (two) in the first six years. It installed Oregon (3-0) at No. 15 and Southern California (3-0) at No. 18, and that was it. The Pac-12 didn’t get started until early November because of the pandemic and a lesser cultural urgency about football. Then it has been riddled with cancellations, including Washington-Washington State and Arizona State-Utah this week, and it sports depleted records such as the 0-1 posted thus far by Arizona State and Utah.

The Utes have played a whopping eight fewer games than their independent in-state rival, BYU of Provo, where there might have been some grumbling.

The first attempt from the committee:

1. Alabama (7-0)

2. Notre Dame (8-0)

3. Clemson (7-1)

4. Ohio State (4-0)

5. Texas A&M (5-1)

6. Florida (6-1)

7. Cincinnati (8-0)

8. Northwestern (5-0)

9. Georgia (5-2)

10. Miami (7-1)