The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season were barely out when fans began questioning whether the CFP committee favored the SEC. Ohio State was pushed down to No. 12, Tennessee settled at No. 13, and even undefeated UCLA couldn’t crack the top seven. With ESPN caught in the crossfire over alleged SEC favoritism, Pat McAfee decided to address the elephant in the room.
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College GameDay is in South Bend, Indiana, as Notre Dame prepares to host the No. 1 Miami Hurricanes in a blockbuster showdown. With kickoff just hours away, the spotlight has shifted beyond the field. McAfee’s comments came as ESPN faced criticism over the rankings due to his ties with the CFP.
“With the SEC, I think you see five, six, seven there, with Alabama, Kentucky, and then Texas,” said McAfee on College GameDay. “I think what the committee is saying this year, more so than ever, and I think they actually added it to the rules, is: ‘We want to see who you beat.'”
“So, I think what the committee told us about the SEC is they have a lot of respect for the conference. Five teams right now are slated to be in the College Football Playoff, the same number as last year. But there’s going to be a lot of movement. And I think the wins matter more this year than they have in the past.”
Though McAfee didn’t address the backlash directly, his comments tried to do damage control by explaining the reasoning behind the committee’s placement of five SEC teams in the top 12 broadcast by ESPN. He argued the rankings reflected the conference’s strength.
The latest CFP rankings have raised serious questions about the committee’s evaluation process. Ohio State sits at No. 12 despite beating Indiana and suffering a narrow one-point road defeat against Texas.
The rankings have raised even more eyebrows with Notre Dame slipping to No. 11 and undefeated UCLA sitting at No. 8, behind several two-loss SEC programs. Indiana’s No. 4 placement is equally puzzling, particularly when its biggest win came against a struggling Michigan side in overtime.
The ranking of Alabama and Tennessee has drawn the loudest criticism. Both teams enter at 6-2, with Alabama having lost to Georgia and Tennessee, and Tennessee having lost to Texas and South Carolina. Yet, Tennessee’s emphatic 26-10 head-to-head victory over the Crimson Tide makes the committee’s decision all the harder to defend.
Alabama lost to Tennessee by 16 points, but that did little to dent its standing in the opening CFP rankings. The Crimson Tide secured the No. 5 spot, while the Vols were inexplicably pushed down to No. 13. The decision sparked outrage among fans, prompting even Paul Finebaum to call a spade a spade.
“I don’t really know if I can make much sense out of it because it is about as discombobulated a ranking as I’ve ever seen,” Finebaum said during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up. “I would use words like the committee was drunk, but that would be inappropriate for such an august group of people, but it really doesn’t make any sense.”
Even Robert Griffin III couldn’t hold back from taking a shot at the controversial CFP rankings, joining the growing chorus of critics questioning the committee’s decision.
Taking to social media, he bluntly declared, “The CFP rankings are drunk. Alabama can’t be ranked ahead of Tennessee right now. Both have 2 losses, and Tennessee beat them head-to-head by 2 scores.”
The rankings have certainly stirred up controversy, but for now, the committee’s verdict stands. Whether things will change moving forward is a question that remains unanswered.