When the latest College Football Playoff rankings were released last night, more than a few eyebrows were raised when it was revealed that one-loss Oregon had leapfrogged unbeaten Florida into the No. 2 spot behind top-ranked Mississippi State. Two of those eyebrows, not surprisingly, belonged to the Seminoles’ head coach.
On the weekly ACC coaches teleconference, Jimbo Fisher was, obviously, asked about getting jumped while still in the midst of a 25-game winning streak. Just as obviously, Fisher wasn’t understanding the turn of events.
“I thought the name of the game was to keep winning?” the head coach asked rhetorically. “I don’t know what they are trying to say or what’s going on.”
The reasoning seems very straightforward looking at the raw numbers, but only if you overlook the fact that FSU has passed every single one of its 2014 tests while Oregon hasn’t.
The Ducks have three wins over teams currently ranked in the CFP Top 25 -- at No. 11 UCLA, No. 12 Michigan State and at No. 23 Utah, with those wins coming by an average of 18.3 points per game. UO’s only loss came by seven to now-No. 14 Arizona in Eugene. FSU, meanwhile, has two such wins -- No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 19 Clemson, with both wins coming in Tallahassee by an average of five points per game (star quarterback Jameis Winston, it should be noted, was suspended for the Clemson game). Louisville was also ranked in the initial CFP poll (No. 25) before being knocked out the following week after its 42-31 loss to FSU.
Very simply, it appears the CFP committee values an overall résumé like the Ducks’ to the Seminoles’ overall superior record. FSU, provided it stays unblemished, would have the opportunity to bolster its case if No. 21 Duke were to make it to the ACC championship game. Then again, UO could very well face No. 6 Arizona State in the Pac-12 title game. At the very best for the Seminoles, that’d be a wash in the minds of the committee; most likely, it’d turn into yet another check mark in favor of the Ducks in the résumé-to-résumé comparison.
Whether résumé continues to trump record and even head-to-head results -- see Baylor/TCU -- will likely be a contentious point moving forward over the next few weeks... especially if the Ducks remain ahead of the undefeated defending national champions.
The good news for FSU? Provided they keep winning, they will be in the four-team playoff field. Seeding though -- and the potential to play closer to home in the Sugar Bowl rather than the Rose Bowl -- will come into play and makes the ‘Noles’ positioning worth watching on a week-to-week basis.