After the announcement of the second College Football Playoff rankings on ESPN on Tuesday night, CFP Selection Committee chair Rob Mullens spoke about a number of topics surrounding the rankings:
Mullens on why each team in the top 4 is ranked where they are:
- LSU has four wins against top-20 teams, the most of any team in the nation. LSU’s win on the road against Alabama was impressive. Its offense is explosive. LSU is ranked No. 1.
- Ohio State is ranked No. 2. It continues to play at a consistently high level on both sides of the ball. They’re an excellent team.
- Clemson is also dominant on both sides of the ball. Although its schedule is not as strong as some others, Clemson is an excellent undefeated team. They’ve gained more than 500 yards of offense in each of their last five games. The committee is impressed with what it sees.
- Georgia, with wins against both Florida and Notre Dame, put them at No. 4 in the rankings this week. The committee spent a lot of time comparing Georgia and Alabama. In the end, Georgia’s two wins over ranked teams made the difference in the No. 4 spot. Alabama clearly is a strong team, but the committee gave the edge to Georgia.
Mullens on how much weight the committee puts into the final scores of games when analyzing teams:
“No, we’re not looking at the final score. We’re watching the games. We understand how the games unfold by watching them. Again, we’re fortunate to have some resources provided to us by the CFP that allows us to capture these games and watch them in different formats.”
Mullens on how much Georgia’s loss to South Carolina and Alabama’s loss to LSU factored into the discussions of those teams:
“It’s certainly a part of the discussion, no doubt. But we’re aware of the South Carolina loss for Georgia and that Alabama’s loss was against a team that was ranked No. 1. So, that’s clearly on the board when we’re comparing them. But we’re also looking at Georgia’s wins against top-20 teams – Florida and Notre Dame.”
Mullens on if it’s fair to say there is a separation and demarcation between No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Oregon right now:
“Again, I’m not in the room (when Oregon is discussed). But when I came back, and for those of you that know how the system works, you rank one through three, then you work from a pool of teams and rank four through six. So, there’s a lot of discussion about all the teams in that pool, and the separator for Georgia in that pool was their two wins against top-20 teams.”
Mullens on how close it was between LSU at No. 1 and Ohio State at No. 2, and if Chase Young missing last week’s game against Maryland and the uncertainly surrounding his situation played any role in Ohio State slipping to No. 2:
“I’ll answer those in reverse order. Again, we were aware that he wasn’t unavailable. But when we watched Ohio State, we still saw an impressive performance, a dominant win. Those two teams are both great games. And again, Ohio State was No. 1 last week because of their consistent play at a very high level. But when you look at LSU’s resume now with the win on the road at Alabama to add to the win on the road at Texas, plus two marquee wins at home against Florida and Auburn — so, four ranked wins –that’s the most of any team in the nation. With that, the committee thought they deserved to be No. 1.”
Mullens on how the committee viewed Alabama’s loss to LSU, whether it was considered a close loss or a loss where LSU had more control in the game:
“No, we don’t look at control. Again, we’re watching the game. Obviously we understand it was played in Tuscaloosa. We’re very aware that LSU led from start to finish. But again, we don’t put labels on it. We watch the games for a reason.”
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