Balls In Your Court CFP Rankings v1

The first set of rankings are officially here! While there is plenty of controversy and discussion to follow, we all hate preseason rankings, and the AP poll just never quite gets the job done. It works, but we all take it with a grain of salt knowing the “real” rankings come out the first week of November. Most teams are who they are at this rate, so its all about the resume and best 4 teams. It should be noted immediately that the entire goal, is to get the best four teams in the playoff. In the end the criteria for getting there isn’t always the most important if you can guarantee the four who make it are the best. Our criteria is largely based on best quality wins, overall record, and eventually the quality of losses. That being said, quality wins trumps all so being undefeated isn’t always enough. H2H wins also play a role, however the timing of that loss also matters. A loss in September is much less significant than a win in October or November. This is largely due to the teams that make the playoff are picked at the end of the year and rarely do the best teams get worse over the course of the year. Lets get right into it!

1. Georgia

2. Alabama

3. Oregon

4. Ohio State

5. Oklahoma

6. Michigan State

7. Cincinnati

8. Notre Dame

9. Oklahoma State

10. Michigan

11. Baylor

12. Wake Forest

13. Auburn

14. Texas A&M

15. Ole Miss

16. BYU

17. Kentucky

18. Iowa

19. Penn State

20. Fresno State

21. Coastal Carolina

22. Houston

23. Wisconsin

24. UTSA

25. Pittsburgh

The skinny:

Alabama will be of some controversy, but we believe not all quality wins are ranked wins. A win @ Florida, while not on the caliber of Ohio State, is important because a road win at The Swamp is much more difficult than any random 3-win team, for example. Further, Cincy above Notre Dame, Oregon above Ohio State, Oklahoma State over Baylor, and Iowa over Penn State largely are due to the H2H matchup. Most of those teams are really close in resume so the H2H is a deciding factor. Plenty more to discuss, but its important to note quality wins are more than just ranked wins and being undefeated isn’t always enough if the schedule is poor or there is lack of quality wins.