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College Football Playoff rankings Week 10: Georgia football comes in at No. 2
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College Football Playoff rankings Week 10: Georgia football comes in at No. 2
ATHENS — The first College Football Playoff rankings of the year are out and the Georgia Bulldogs are the No. 2 ranked team in the eyes of the committee.
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Initially, I felt offense....but quickly I praised and thanked the committee for not placing the "cursive pressure" of #1 on our Dawgs...hell, in retrospect I wish we'd been given the 4th place, after all how would we have ever had a chance against the pigskin pugilist the likes of Notre Dame and Penn St not to mention slugging it out with Youngstown St, Western Kentucky and the Big 10 Behemoths???? Oh well, I take solace in knowing that for the past two years we have taken on all comers and lost only one which we attoned for in the NC. I still can't get over the committees willfull blindness of Big Blues cheating.....they should have been 5th or 6th behind The Huskies and Ducks.
Not surprised, TBH. OSU has 2 big wins, but if the Dawgs win out and win the SEC, that's wins against 4 top 15 teams out of their last 5 games. The rest will take care of itself as long as they get into the playoffs.
Yeah, I don't really get putting Ohio State ahead of us before we lose. It can only be about strength of schedule, but by the end of the season Georgia will have played a tougher schedule than Ohio State. So if we win out, they will have to put us right back in front of Ohio State. And if we lose at some point we'll have to drop anyway. So why rank the team with the nation's longest win steak (one of the longest in the history of the sport) and the last two national titles any lower than #1 until there's a reason to?
This could be a good thing, as we've seen how open to this type of motivation the team can be. My only real concern is that this might signify that the committee is looking not to have Georgia at #1. I mean, if Ohio State keeps winning, at what point to they get passed over for Georgia? Surely the committee is well aware of both teams' remaining schedules. If Georgia beats Missouri, would that be enough? If we beat Miss? If so, why wouldn't we just stay at #1 until/unless we lose one of those games? And if not, then do we reach a point where the committee says, "well we've had Ohio State at #1 all these weeks and they won out, no reason to bump them down now," despite the fact that their own case for putting OSU at #1 in the first place now demands putting Georgia there?
I guess I'm kind of rambling now. Just trying to make sense of what seems to be a very shortsighted decision that could eventually have significant ramifications. I just don't understand why they would put Ohio State at the top spot right now if they aren't prepared to keep them there if they win out, at which point they will have contradicted themselves if Georgia is also undefeated having gone through a slate in which they will be favored in every game.
I'm pretty sure Kirby appreciates being ranked #2. I know I do.
It's a snub to the team which has been ranked #1 by the AP and Coaches every week of this season, and an insult to the program which has won college football the last two seasons. Thank you, committee, for coming through for the Dawgs!
Not that it matters much, but it's a nice little gift.
My guess is it means THE is outworking us. That means we can work harder.
My guess is it means THE is better at assignment/complimentary football than us. We can fix that.
It's not much of an underdog position, but it will do.
Go, Dawgs!
Thank you CFP Committee. Knock us down to 3 or 4. Even lower. The lower the better. We will take all of the motivation and determination you will give us. Thanks again!
Agree !! They did our Dawgs a favor !! Nice bulletin board material. Kirby will build this up to a Boulder on their shoulder and Mizzou will face a peed off Dawgs team !! Thx Committee !! We appreciate the help !! Go Dawgs !!
Kirby says he doesn't watch the rankings, doesn't care about the rankings. I don't think we are one bit more motivated than we were 2 hours ago.
The rankings reflect this season up to this point only. The committee doesn't take into consideration what has happened the last 2 years
I don't see why they shouldn't take the last two years into account, when this year is a continuation of it. We still haven't lost since before the beginning of last season. And this year we've seen - twice now - what happens when a team has Georgia's full attention. It's the same thing that's been happening the last two years. To act like it doesn't look awfully familiar would be disingenuous.
That's why I put my argument in terms of Georgia continuing to win. If they happen to lose a game, then I would expect them to drop, just like everyone else, at which point you have to question whether this team really is the real deal that everyone has come to know over the last two years. But until that happens, there's no reason to act like Georgia isn't still the top team in the sport.
I also don't know why you would think the team wouldn't use this as motivation, after what we heard from them at the end of last season.
@E_Roc
No, by the end of the season UGA will not have played a tougher schedule than Ohio State. Ohio State's best scenario will be victories over 12-1 Michigan, 10-2 Notre Dame, 10-2 Penn State, 9-4 Iowa (BTCG) plus victories over bowl teams Maryland, Rutgers, Minnesota and Wisconsin, one or two of which will have 8 wins.
UGA's best scenario: 11-2 Alabama (SECCG), 10-2 Ole Miss, 9-3 Tennessee and Missouri, 8-4 Kentucky, 7-5 Florida and 7-5 Georgia Tech. UGA will have more wins against the top 15 (4-3). But Ohio State will have more against the top 10 (3-2) and more against winning teams (8-7). Also, Big 10 teams play 9 conference games to the SEC's 8 which is another bump because it increases the schedule strength computer ratings of Ohio State's opponents. The SEC used to overcome that in the computer ratings by dominating their OOC matchups, but this year Alabama lost to Texas, LSU to FSU, South Carolina to North Carolina (and likely Clemson), Texas A&M to Miami, Arkansas to BYU and Florida to Utah (and likely FSU). As crazy as it seems, the best OOC victory the SEC has this year is Ole Miss over Tulane, though by rankings it is Missouri over #25 Kansas State. Kentucky upsetting Louisville is possible but it won't be nearly enough.
Were Ohio State, Washington, FSU and Georgia to all run the table UGA would be #3 in schedule strength. Before you complain about the Huskies, getting this done would mean UW beating Oregon twice, plus the Pac-12 also does the 9 conference games thing.
It's interesting that of the 5 guys who hosted the show on ESPN last night, none of them thought Ohio State was the best team.
I see what you're saying, and I admittedly did do some assumption based on how top-heavy the big 10 is, including a Penn state team that is looking pretty overrated at the moment. But even going by the projection you just gave, the two schedules are pretty comparable. And I think Georgia has clearly looked better when they're "on" than Ohio State has.
This is mostly academic, as there is a lot left to play out. I do get a little concerned about not being #1 at the end, because that would likely be pretty beneficial in the playoff. Right now, Ohio State has a couple of better wins in terms of the general quality of the opponent, but I don't think a sincere argument could be made that they've looked like the best team.
I get it. 2 big wins. But OSU beat ND on the last play of the game after a Hail Mary 2nd to last play of the game. I don't think ND is that good. And PSU? They also looked like pretenders especially on offense. I think that MO, MS and TN are probably all better than ND and PSU.
That being said, OSU looks like a top team. Opportunistic on D and 3 good receivers and a very good RB. Marvin Harrison Jr looks like the best offensive player in the country. He has looked unstoppable. Luther Burden will be a good test and warm up for the UGA D should OSU/UGA Rd 2 happen later this year.
But it is great that CKS gets to claim "the committee and media doesn't think UGA is that good". It will help this young team to focus when CKS plays the disrespect card.
UGA needs to take the air out of MO early on. MO will gain confidence the longer they are allowed to hang around. Will be interesting to see how UGA's OL and game plan manage the MO DL.
UGA winning it that last 2 years has absolutely nothing to do with being Ranked #1 this year. IF the entire team was returning AND looked better than everyone else then yes they should be ranked #1. But just because UGA is the "defending champion" in itself does not warrant a #1 rank. Different year different team.
"I do get a little concerned about not being #1 at the end, because that would likely be pretty beneficial in the playoff."
One would think ... although that clearly wasn't the case last year, when we drew what turned out to be the second-best team in the country!
I like the motivation given to the Dawgs by the committee. While I admittedly don’t pay much attention to what goes on in the Big 2 conference, I am somewhat surprised to see Ohio State at #1. I was thinking Michigan would be in that spot. This strength of schedule analytics is artificial in many ways. Does anybody really think Penn State is a really good football team? Notre Dame should have lost to Duke! Giving significant strength of schedule points for beating those two teams is a pretty weak analytic trick.
Iowa is a joke. Georgia Southern hung with Wisconsin a long time in Madison. The Big 2 is an extremely top heavy conference. Admittedly, both Ohio State and Michigan are very good. After those two, the conference is extremely weak.
Georgia, regardless of analytics, has a very, very difficult stretch that started last Saturday. These next three games, plus the SEC championship game, constitute the most difficult gauntlet faced by any top ranked team. IF the Dawgs get through this gauntlet, the committee will put Them at the top of the rankings. Of course, that’s a very BIG IF?
In addition, I’m thinking Washington and Oregon are being underrated.
Being #1 at the end means we play in New Orleans rather than Los Angeles. So we'd play in central time zone with an easier flight for fans.
Both of those things matter.
Don't care where we are ranked in the initial CFP poll. I don't think Kirby Smart does either. All I care about now is Missouri and they scare me. Dawg fans are trying to be respectful to them, but I get the feeling that UGA people were genuinely more concerned about Kentucky last month than they are about Mizzou, and I think that's a mistake. Maybe we'll blow them out -- I certainly hope we do. But those boys are talented, determined and revenge-minded over losing to us last season. Thank goodness we get them between the hedges. Go Dawgs!
Ohio State will lose to Michigan. Everybody outside the SEC has been talking about UGA's weak schedule. Ohio State's has a weak sister schedule if there ever was one.
But...muh...Big 10...they are just so powerful don't you know. In the last 20 years the SEC has had 14 championship teams, ACC has 3, Big 10 has 2, PAC 10 has 2 (one was split with LSU). But every year the Big 10 is supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread. Give me a break.
Klatt says Ohio State beating Penn State and Notre Dame means they have the two best wins among the top teams. What is he smoking? Penn State looked like a bad team to me. ND should have lost to Duke. To clarify, Notre Dame should have lost to Duke in a football game - not a basketball game. Klatt apparently does not understand that there are only two teams in the Big 10. Pay attention. Ohio State is not even the best team in the Big Ten, much less the country.