College Football Playoff Rankings are out

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Listen to Health Discovered on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. A bow tie? Is this because of the college football playoffs' first fake rankings yesterday? For those people watching, Chip looks dynamite.

How are you? The tuxedo is because I am coming fresh off of the elite gala that is the cover three October superlatives. Once every month comes to a close, I throw on the tuxedo, we hand out awards for excellence in college football. We had our player of the month, Ollie Gordon from Oklahoma State. We had our team of the month, the Ohio State Buckeyes. We had our coach of the month, David Braun, the interim coach at Northwestern, who in a loss season has found a way to get two wins against likely bowl teams. That was something that you got to give credit for. Mike Gundy, of course, getting a little bit of credit as well. And then finally, the game of the month was Washington's win against Oregon. So congrats to all the nominees and all the award winners.

It was an excellent mid-morning, afternoon, evening, whatever. That Washington win over Oregon didn't impress anybody in the committee room. First of all, A, who cares about the first college football playoff rankings?

They're fake. Nothing matters. They clearly didn't follow their own pattern from resume to, well, we know they're good to, well, yeah, they haven't played anybody, but they've crushed everybody to, hey, they've got a good resume. They've got a good resume, four and five. What were your thoughts, your first takeaways from what they did last night?

See, I think that you need to understand that it comes down to splitting ties all the way down. You know, they're going to use different criteria. They say in their founding documents, they're going to be lots of different criteria used to determine, you know, how we're going to stack these teams up against each other. Now, I do think whether it was said or unsaid, there was an understanding in the room that they would look to a lot of college football clownish by omitting Georgia or Michigan, even though Georgia and Michigan do not have the resume of Washington.

Right. I do think that this was very, very basic for the first set of rankings because they literally just stack up the losses. And that's something that we've talked about before for the college football playoff selection committee, the way they start at the very beginning is like, all right, all the undefeated power five teams, throw them up to the top.

Okay. All the one loss power five teams. Let's start to stack them up, split ties all along the way. And look, it's sometimes it's going to respect head to head with the Washington team ahead of Oregon, even though Oregon has looked much better since that game than Washington.

Sometimes they don't respect it. Like what they did with Texas and Oklahoma, where maybe they looked at Texas beat Kansas, but Kansas beat Oklahoma. So even though Oklahoma beat texts on a neutral, it was on the last play of the game.

And guess what? Oklahoma doesn't have is another good win to be able to pair with that Longhorns victory. You're going to five and three Iowa state as the next best win for the Sooners.

So I ultimately, I thought that stacking up the last column showed you how things are going to start. I was not surprised at Ole Miss being at number 10 because the rebels, man, they got the loss to Alabama and they got wins against LSU and Tulane. I mean, they really lean on wins against teams that they consider in the top 25. I was happy to see that Louisville was able to get ahead of Notre Dame, even though the traditional polls have Louisville behind Notre Dame.

So, you know, I, I don't know. I like to go through the process. I understand why a lot of college football fans think it's all rigged and it's all for the show. But I truly believe that the 13 individuals in that room do follow a process that spits out these results. And then they throw one person out there to try and, you know, vouch for it. In this case, this year, NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan.

And last year it was also Boo Corrigan. Here's what my question would be. If we say that, well, they'll clown us if we don't have Georgia and Michigan in the top four. My response to that would be, let them clown us.

We're going to tell you who we believe. If Ohio State is the most deserving team. And what I don't understand, like, based on what you said, why would Michigan be behind Georgia? They've both played junior varsity schedules. Michigan has laid waste to theirs and Georgia hasn't. Georgia's been good, but they haven't, I mean, absolutely obliterated it the way Michigan has. I think that Georgia has played more teams with records of 500 or better.

Two. I think that you've got a Georgia team that is coming all over. Kentucky and Florida, that's it. Florida and Kentucky are both better than Rutgers. Yeah, I know. And none of them are ranked in the top 25. Right.

But I've got no problem with it. Georgia just lost Brock Bowers and played its best game of the season. They did. Absolutely. If you're going to be coming out here, and I think that Florida State not being number two was my big surprise.

I had it as my projection. Ohio State one, Florida State two. If they're following their own process, I would have put Washington at three. Right. But I think that the Huskies have just, they've messed around. Their last two wins.

Absolutely. So it's the two teams. Remember, never forget, Mississippi State was the number one team in the first college football playoff rankings. Mississippi State and then Ole Miss won two. In 2014.

So I've started to create the Mississippi State Memorial fast start of the year. Right. And right now, Washington and Oklahoma are it. Because I could have told you in the wake of Red River and in the wake of Washington's win against Oregon, they've got an argument as the number one team in the country. Heck, even the Huskies were getting first place votes in the AP poll.

And all they've done is fart around. And they Oklahoma farted around and found out so far. The Huskies have just been getting away with cheap one score wins against Pac 12 teams late at night where most people aren't paying attention. So I think Florida State would have been my two. I understand why Georgia and Michigan are going to be in the top five. And for Washington, not a good sign that that your win against Oregon, which by definition is the best. And according to the committee, the fact that you're at five is not a good sign for Kaitlyn DeBoer in the group.

Right. Except that if they win, you know, their next three games because they're all right now ranked in the college football playoff. I don't know what the order is, but Southern Cal, Utah and Oregon State right now are all ranked. They're all toward the bottom of the rankings, but they're all ranked. And I guess a loss to Washington would likely knock all of them out. But right now they're ranked anyway. So I think if they win their next three, Washington will have nothing to worry about.

And really, I don't think they have anything to worry about. Georgia's got all the quality wins ahead. Georgia.

I think Georgia would stay up there. Right. But aren't Ohio State and Michigan going to cancel each other out as long as Washington continues to win?

No. Really? No, if they're both undefeated going into the last Saturday. Yeah, I know.

I know that. But when they when they play Saturday after Thanksgiving. USC is going to beat Washington.

So, OK, that's fine. But if Washington if Washington wins and gets all the way to the last gets to the Pac-12 championship game and they're 12 and 0. They'll be in the top four. Yeah.

I mean, I saw again. And then lose to Oregon. Yeah, probably.

And then, you know, then maybe Oregon gets in as a one loss team. I don't know. I asked Jerry Palm yesterday, who's the best?

I don't even remember his answer. Who's the who's the one loss team with the best chance? I think he said Oregon. Yeah. Because then they would also get the path in where we got to avenge the loss.

Right. That is something that's been done several times in the college football playoff where you lose to a team in the regular season. Then you beat that team in the conference championship game.

Then you get to use this phrase, which is amazing. We beat everybody on our schedule. We have defeated everyone on our schedule. Texas could do the same thing, right? Correct. Yeah. I would say that, you know, you're looking at Texas and Oregon as the teams that could battle up in there.

But, you know what? Washington or Oregon, Texas or Oklahoma? And I don't have a lot of faith in Oklahoma, Florida or Ohio State or Michigan. It's a not nine teams fighting for four spots. It's a very simple elimination game to describe to a college football fan that doesn't want to bother their Tuesday nights with track and all this stuff. And here in all the ups and downs of the rankings, if you only care about the top four, then that's that's the way the picture looks, at least in my eyes. Let me ask this.

This is a philosophical question. And I know my answer to this because we know the playoff is expanding to twelve next season. And I've heard a lot of people, oh, this would be our twelve this year. And look, it sounds a lot of fun. Is that more fun than every week between now and the first weekend in December being sort of an elimination week for a lot of these teams? Would you rather have a month of fun or a weekend of fun? I, I like November as it is, and I think that November will be hurt.

Not helped. And the argument Dennis Todd talked to a bunch of the college football playoff stakeholders. Their argument is that in the month of November, thirty five teams will be able to say they've got a shot at the playoff instead of what I just laid out to you. I said nine, let's say twelve there because they are tripling the size of the playoff.

They believe three times as many teams will still have a decent shot at it. And I'll tell you where that will matter. OK, it'll it'll matter in the Sunbelt. You know, it'll matter in maybe maybe the American Athletic Conference. It'll matter when it comes to the fact that you're not just going to get a spot in the Cotton Bowl or the Peach Bowl, but you're you're going to get a shot at the big bracket.

So those competitions will matter. And look, some of these conference title races where, for example, in the Big 12 right now, did you know there's a five way tie for first place? On the Big 12 in the Big 12 right now.

Same right. The standings suggest that right now, Texas and Oklahoma, you know, they are living in the same world as Iowa State and as Oklahoma State and as Kansas State. Five way tie with one loss in the conference in conference play. You know, in the automatic qualifier world, Brent Pray can look the Hokies in the eye and say, if we beat Louisville this weekend, we might get a win in your end shot. Unbelievable. We left that team for dead like three three weekends ago. Brent Pray also got a nomination for coach of the month. Why not?

Why not? Good for him. Chip Patterson is joining us here. Cover three podcast, CBS Sports dot com.

All right. Put on your Tyler from Spartanburg hat. Tyler from Spartanburg called the Dabo Sweeney coaches show and basically said, you suck.

Why are we paying you eleven and a half million dollars to go four and four? Did you like Dabo's response? Did you think Dabo should have just worn it, laughed it off and moved on? And really, James sort of has a point, I guess. But so does Dabo. It's his coach's show.

He can do what he wants. Right. You know, like I and then I've heard it mentioned that how often does this happen anymore? Do you know who else has a coach's show that takes actual calls live on the air? I know the answer, but give it to us, Trip.

Alabama. Yeah, I can't believe it. Greatest coach in college football history sits there and takes questions from former high school football players are questioning about his blitzing patterns on third down. And then after wins, Nick Saban's like, Tyler, I've been waiting to hear from you. You know, like he's he's got that kind of relationship. Right. And what I think happened is not dissimilar to what happened with Dave Doran. You know, you're at NC State where.

Your frustrations that are bigger than the individual slight. We're sort of packaged into into the response. I will say that nothing is better than Dabo talking about it at his media event on Tuesday when he said he brought Old Testament scripture and got an Old Testament response. OK, Tyler, that was a that was an Old Testament kind of response.

He needed to get some fire and brimstone in his life right there. I mean, so I, I believe that the places where Dabo went over the line are such number one. I work for the board of trustees. All right. If you're going to do the IPTA, I pay 10 every year and you're going to cast this wide net and you're going to let the fans on the field.

You do actually have to kind of ingratiate yourself to the fan base a little bit. But number two, I, I do think that as he talked himself in circles, he watered down the message. But then number.

But finally, I do think that he was he he was at least right to point out that there is a. There is an issue with these programs that haven't been there before that when they get it, they get a hit of it. You get to the other side and there's not an acceptance for anything but the very top. And it is unrealistic to expect that. But college football fans at the highest levels are irrational to a core from 2011. Let Ryan Day lose to Michigan again. Watch what Ohio State fans start. Well, how long did it take Jim Harbaugh to win one of those one of those games and people were ready to kill him? And now Michigan State's horrific.

So you're going to win those games by accident now. But Dabo was right from 2011 to twenty two. They've won double digit games every one of those years, went to the college football playoff six years in a row. In that stretch, they won like fourteen, fourteen, twelve, fifteen. I mean, they've just won. They couldn't stop winning games.

Now, the real criticism of Dabo has been. Maybe they're just not good enough and maybe the ACC hadn't forced them to be good enough where they they couldn't get away with just being OK on offense anymore. And they can't because now there's a lot of good teams in this league. They got beat by Duke because Duke had a great defense and Clemson really couldn't do much against it. They got beat by Miami.

A lot of it is also you don't have a kicker. But I think Clemson's got real issues to work out. Dabo's used a phrase on Tuesday that is going to be very interesting. He used the phrase pruning. You know, he he got a little biblical again. He started talking about big, healthy trees and a big, healthy trees. You know, even during bad seasons, they require some pruning. And that led my mind to two different places. Right.

It is and could be both. Either we're going to make more changes to the coaching staff or we're going to actually start running off players because I'll tell you what every national championship contending program does. They look at the dead weight on the roster. Yeah.

And they they have that tough conversation. And then you go to the transfer portal to address the need. So, yes, it is Clemson using the transfer portal. But it's also Clemson being a little bit more honest with the players that they missed on and telling them, hey, buddy, I got it's going to be better for you to go find some playing time elsewhere. You free up the scholarship, free up the roster spot, because from a lot of the talent evaluators that I work with and talk to, it's not just the absence of one wide receiver. Like if Keon Coleman didn't play for Florida State and he played for Clemson.

Yeah, they might be eight. No, because Duke didn't respect the wide receivers. Keon Coleman wouldn't have played for Florida State. And then the games against Miami and then against NC State probably wouldn't have been as close if you had Keon Coleman added to that roster.

And then I think Florida State, if they have a kicker. I think it's more than just that. I think it is about identifying like roster spots that can be better used elsewhere. So we'll see what pruning means, whether it's on the sidelines or on the field. But I'm interested to see what happens is off season.

Oh, my gosh. They probably should dip into the portal. I mean, they don't have to go nuts, but it does run counterintuitive to what Dabo wants to do. Right. Dabo wants to build, you know, whether you like it or not, Dabo is I mean, he's kind of a preacher and there it's all about the collective unit and everybody's it is like a churchy environment there. And it's tough to do that.

It's tougher to do that if you are telling some of the flock that they have to go so you can bring in better players. It he's going to have to walk a tightrope to in order to pull that off and stay true to what he wants. We'll see how much how well he can do that. You are capable of doing anything. Chip Patterson, you're my friend. I appreciate your time. And since we last talked, the hurricanes can't lose. One last thing. Sure. Quote of the night. Yeah.

Boo Corrigan paraphrasing because I don't have the quote in front of me. That's an NCAA problem. That's not a college football problem. He's right.

Right. The meaning the Michigan sign stealing issue is an NCAA problem or a Big Ten problem. I know Paul Finebaum was calling for the Big Ten to step in. I don't see the Big Ten taking one of their players out of the playoff equation because money. But yeah, it is it is an NCAA issue. It's not a it's not a college football playoff issue. And it shouldn't be. And it doesn't seem as though anyone in that room believes that any of Michigan's success has been tainted. You know, as they again put a team whose second best win is Matt rules Nebraska in the top three. Yeah, well, whether they do or not, they don't care.

I would I just think that they don't care. Well, it's just like you. So you you do the shots of Connor Stallion's allegedly on the sidelines at Central Michigan, like some big gotcha moment. Guess what? Jim McElwain was an assistant for Jim Harbaugh. Central Michigan staff has three more assistants that used to work for Harbaugh. I just I you know what he is. He's the summer intern who tries too hard. And like the guy who works at the company is in charge of the interns like, all right, whatever, man, just get out of my office.

You're so annoying. He thinks he's Bill Belichick. Connor Stallion thinks he's Bill Belichick. And he's just an intern tryhard who's going way over the top for very minimal gain. Didn't it look didn't it look like a fake mustache and glasses? That's right. That's what I when I looked at him like it looks like a fake mustache and glasses.

But I could be wrong. He pulls his hat down when he realizes the TV cameras on the opposite side. So I mean, it's just again, like you are selling me on the idea that Jim Harbaugh didn't know about this because this is all so sloppy. And of course, he knew he doesn't care. He's going to the NFL next year. Promise. I mean, he'll be he'll be charged with NCAA violations and it won't matter. It won't matter because he'll be in the NFL, just like Pete Carroll. Chip Patterson, my friend cover three podcast and talk to you next week. Sounds good.