Jan 19, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The College Football Playoff National Championship trophy at a press conference at The Westin Peachtree Plaza, Savannah Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images The College Football Playoff Committee released its first rankings of the season, and as a whole, they did a pretty solid job, especially towards the top of the poll. The committee did a consistent job year over year by ensuring that head-to-head matchups mattered when comparing two teams.
On the other hand, the Big 12 has to be ecstatic with the results of these rankings. Three teams within the top 13, and they could easily wind up with two or even all three of these teams in the playoffs. Utah is the biggest winner from these rankings, somehow managing to slide in at 13th. They have solid wins against Cincinnati and an Arizona State team without Sam Leavitt, but they have a blowout loss at home to Texas Tech and a loss to BYU that was not nearly as close as the score implied. They feel like a team much more on the level of Washington than a fringe playoff contender.
The biggest story of the night came at the top of the rankings. Ohio State becomes the first No. 1 seed in the rankings, which was somewhat controversial to the ESPN analysts presenting the rankings. Who did they think deserved the number one spot? Hint, it’s the undefeated team that’s in the conference they have the rights to. That’s right, they thought that Texas A&M had the most deserving resume of the three leading undefeated teams.
I simply don’t get how that’s the case. If you want to use the eye test, Ohio State has been the most dominant. Still, even without the eye test, they have more wins over teams the committee has ranked. Then, if you compare their best wins — Ohio State over Texas and Texas A&M over Notre Dame — it’s pretty comparable. Then, Ohio State has the solid road win over Washington, which is far better than anything else on the Aggies’ resume.
If anyone could have a real gripe with the rankings, it could be Indiana. They might honestly have the two best wins out of any of the undefeated teams.
The best thing about these rankings is that they usually find a way of working themselves out. But what would be the fun in college football if we could complain about the rankings?
