Alabama Football at No. 2 and the Cincinnati Bearcats at No. 6 in the first Playoff rankings caused an explosion of complaints far more widespread than Cincinnati fans.
American Athletic Conference Commissioner, Mike Aresco said,
"These rankings, the more you look at them, they’re indefensible. It’s clearly a P5 invitational."
In a slightly more restrained response, Aresco said,
"It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The committee doesn’t rank our teams that deserve to be ranked, then they turn around and say they don’t play any ranked teams."
Aresco was likely referring to SMU and Houston not being ranked in the College Football Playoff Top 25. SMU is 7-1, with its only loss to Houston. Houston is also 7-1 with an opening game loss to now, four-loss, Texas Tech. SMU is No. 23 in the current AP Poll and Houston is No. 20.
Answering questions after the first rankings were released Tuesday night, Selection Committee Chair, Gary Barta indirectly said the ranking of teams in polls does not affect the committee’s decisions.
What Barta said does matter is,
"We look at teams’ records; we look at their strength of schedule, head-to-head, results of common opponents. Then every committee member makes their own ranking.(The committee members) watch all the games, and they just have a wealth of data and statistics available to them at all times. We put it together and we talk about it."
Strength of schedule as a major component is why Cincinnati was ranked at No. 6. Barta elaborated when asked specifically about the Bearcats.
"… after (the Notre Dame) win, look at who else they’ve beaten. Look at who else they’ve played. Then most recently, watching them against – the last two weeks against a 2-6 Navy team, and understanding preparing for the option in that kind of game can be a challenge, but then the next week, just this past weekend against a 1-7 Tulane team …"
The Selection Committee has plenty of strength of schedule (SOS) data to consider the Bearcats. ESPN has the Bearcats SOS at No. 100 in the FBS. Jeff Sagarin has the Bearcats’ schedule rated at No. 94.
The schedule weakness is not a new problem for the Bearcats. Jeff Sagarin had them at No. 91 at the end of last season; No. 67 in 2019 and No. 90 in 2018.
Alabama Football fanbase knows Notre Dame well
Cincinnati’s claim to final four status this season comes from a road win over Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are a good team. But as the Alabama Football fanbase knows well, beating Notre Dame is not the standard for claiming elite status. Brian Kelly is a very good coach, but in his 12 Notre Dame seasons, there have been 22 losses to ranked teams and 18 losses to unranked teams. During the same period, Alabama Football has lost 16 games, with only one loss to an unranked team that is currently No. 14 (TAMU) in the CFP rankings.
The committee is correct to doubt Cincinnati’s final four credibility. In fairness to the Bearcats, it appears they are trying to upgrade their schedules. As yet, they have no future games scheduled against an elite program. When Cincinnati beats an elite team, they might deserve more consideration. So far that win is missing and that includes beating Notre Dame this season.
A two-loss Alabama team, with the second loss being a close one against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, will be more deserving of a final four slot than an undefeated Cincinnati team.
The Selection Committee will not be bold enough to exclude an undefeated Cincinnati team at the end – unless there are four undefeated Power Five teams. No matter how right it might be to do so, such a result would seriously damage the Playoff system.