The 13-person selection committee that will meet weekly from now until the end of the college football regular season released its first-ever College Football Playoff Ranking. This year is the first year that college football will implement a playoff system, which will see the top four teams at the end of the year, as determined by this selection committee, advance to a playoff for the national championship.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, three teams from the football powerhouse Southestern Conference are ranked in the top four. More specifically, all three of those teams hail from the SEC West. Mississippi State (7-0) took the number-one overall spot, followed by Florida State (7-0), the only Atlantic Coast Conference team ranked in the top 20 (and one of only two in the entire top 25). Auburn (6-1) and Ole Miss (7-1) round out the top four.
Of note, Marshall (8-0), one of three undefeated teams left in the country, was left out of the rankings—a nod to the emphasis that the committee will place on strength of schedule—and there was some head-scratching around Auburn’s jump up to #3 (they’re 4th and 5th in the USA Today and ESPN polls, respectively) and Notre Dame being left down at 10th (they sit 7th and 6th in those same polls).
As it stands, the playoff would look like this: The first round would see Mississippi St. and Ole Miss square off in one game and FSU vs. Auburn (a rematch of last year’s BCS National Championship Game) in the other semifinal, with the winners of each game squaring off in the National Championship Game.
Just in case you need a visual aid, here’s what the college football playoff would look like if it started tomorrow:
1st College Football Playoff rankings are here: 1. Mississippi State 2. Florida State 3. Auburn 4. Ole Miss pic.twitter.com/82bbyx9fNJ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 28, 2014
Personally, I’m a fan (sarcasm) of how ESPN is pushing the “First 2 Out” like this is March Madness or something. Next thing you know, they’re going to hire a college-football bracketologist that’ll be touted as the Joe Lunardi of the gridiron game, when, in reality, that person’s job would be literally 1/17 that of Lunardi’s.
The reaction from college football analysts around the interwebs has been mostly positive in the minutes since the rankings were posted, but it’s early. There are six weeks left, and the committee has promised that the rankings from the previous week will not influence the newest poll, so it’s to be assumed that this thing could change dramatically before the season is finished.