Why Are The College Football Rankings Different Than The College Football Playoff Bracket?

the ranking (as opposed to the seed) is not useless for teams in the bracket. if we just saw miami was seeded 4 this week, they could be ranked anywhere from 7-13 and we’d have no clue. if byu and osu swapped spots, miami could be ranked 4-13 and we’d have no clue. we’d ask ourselves can miami afford a close loss in the acc title game and still get in and have no clue bc if they were at 4 then ofc they could and jf they’re at 13 then absolutely not. eliminating the ranking and only showing the seed eliminates a huge amount of transparency about the rankings (and we barely have any to begin with). it’s not that hard to understand. regardless, the committee just comes up with a top 25, it’s espn making the bracket on the screen and putting in auto bids for clicks. the committee doesn’t care about auto bids - they don’t really decide them. they’re just ranking the top 25 so that when selection day comes, they can extract the 5 best champs and then the 7 best at larges. simple as that. blame espn for their program if you’re confused

How is Miami above SMU?

Bc it’s rigged

If you lose don't cry do better. Ether win out or be subjective to the committee.

SMU’s only loss was by 3 to #6 BYU in week 2, before SMU made a QB change.

They had to make it so ohio state plays the 2 esiest teams

Anyone who’s playing CFB25 is well aware how the playoff bracket works 😂

They did a ranking this time because the Indiana fans were crying like with the bracket it says their 7th but there 7th because the conference champs are ahead of them

Bro I hate how people gloss the big ten. There’s a reason the big 10 teams are up top. It’s an easier conference by far. The SEC anyone can lose to anyone at any time

The disrespect for Tennessee is laughable at this point

Indiana shouldn’t even sniff the playoffs if they lose to OSU they looked absolutly pathatic vs a bad Mich team and lucky that Michigans offense is ranked in the 100’s

Indiana’s SOS is horrific their opponents are a combined 40-53 and they have only beaten 1 team with a winning record not a single one ranked

Sure Indiana beat up on poor 3-6 Charlotte and 3-6 W Illinois congrats to them they dominated a glorified HS team

OSU is going to crush them and if they don’t I’d be legit shocked.

Talking football judgement….how can you measure how well you run a route or anything for that matter without looking at who they are running the route against

When Indiana played Michigan who at least has a heartbeat on defense their football judgement was piss poor with their massive 18 yards of offense that second half

Tone doesn’t know a damn thing

If army goes unbeaten and doesn’t make the playoff Army will be livid!!!

The reason I’ll never be able to really get into college football is all the deep rooted bias

Just do rankings until the final bracket is set, then reveal the bracket.

The criteria for IU was them only missing the SoS. By that logic, Army should be 12-16th rank. Smashed opponents and no game has been close.

as an SEC fan, it sucks that the SEC isnt as strong as years past, our teams this year are definitely over hyped, but at the same time, the Big 10 having that many teams ranked that high is even more of a joke considering they dont play anybody. And the Big 10 cant even use the excuse of playing each other, because theyre all trash. But, I do love the chaos and finally having a 12 team playoff just makes it that much more interesting. As someone else said in the comments, I wish they would have used the BCS rankings due to bias of a committee.

WSU baby

Army disrespect

4 seed Boise State would be awesome

They need to put out the rankings as a whole because conferences use them to decide tiebreakers within divisions.

It's not confusing...they rank the team, and then when they apply the rules to those ranked teams, we get the seeds. There are just a lot of people that don't care to learn about how it works.

I can't believe there are still dudes out there that think the power 4 conferences are guaranteed a spot in the playoff. They aren't. It's a pretty damn good bet, but that's because of how teams get ranked - not because there is anything in the rules about it.

There was a time when the average person was illiterate and probably had no idea what arithmetic was - dumbing things down because people get confused doesn't help anyone have something better and understand something more complicated. Just keep explaining it to people - that's what your job is.

Yall Kamala lost and yall sec lost hahahaa!!! Yall need to choose a better president and conference next time! HA Double Losers!

I'm glad it's expanded but let's face it. It's not a playoff to crown a Nat Champ. It's still a "beauty contest" based on ticket sales and TV ratings. The old cronies from the Big10 and SEC don't ever want a march madness style true national championship style tournament playoffs. 16 team playoff - 9 Conf Champs and 7 at-large is the ideal playoffs. They know it would make the most money but they don't want the G5 to make equal playoff $$$. Greedy bastards!!

All this raking is showing is that you need to make your schedule as easily as possible and then win one big game and you’re in. Punishing teams for playing good schedules should not be a thing.

Why call it a playoff to find the best team when teams from a “certain” conference continue to lose games and they don’t drop in the rankings. Move them the hell out if there, why hasn’t Boise State and SMU moved up when these teams continue to lose. That is just unfair and borderline criminal that these rankings are only based on if they pass the eye test of the beholder.

I’m sorry but if you got 3 losses you should be out the playoffs period and let some of these smaller schools get in if they only have 1-2 losses. Y’all left Florida state out off 1 loss and beat several top ranked teams. They just put there favorite teams in there. Regardless if they lose.

The thing that doesnt make sense to me is how people want to change it now to make it more big 10 or sec favorable… but the acc and big 12 while going through a slump will bounce back eventually

i thought this playoff format was supposed to make things easier

Pat, you should do a breakdown of the BYU kicker's touchdown-saving, solo tackle of Utah's leading rusher on the kickoff return with one minute left in the first quarter last Saturday night. Not only did he make the tackle, but stood over the returner for a moment--but not long enough to draw a penalty. It's the kind of kicker play you would love!

My idea for the bye week the top three Conference champions get the Bye, and the fourth by goes to the best team remaining

I think they should rank it the way it seats for the playoffs don't put the team that's going to be the fourth seed at 9 put them at 4

the AP wont matter anymore with the 12 team playoff

Pat horrible take

Just do the ranking for now. Then reveal the playoff bracket once after conference championships

How LSU and MIzzu still ranked?.....except to give the SEC guys who beat them a boost for strength of schedule.

Alabama doesnt belong. History shouldnt play a role.

I like the top 25 rankings bc it shows who will drop out the playoffs with a loss and who probably won’t

The bracket being put out is pointless until the conference champions are crowned…I don’t see why it’s confusing…yes it could’ve been slotted 1 thru 12 but they chose to make conference champions matter…

If Georgia gets left out I will be pissed

No keep conference champs in. We dont need the big 10 and SEC having home field advantage because they're loved more.

I still believe conference Champs should get home game if dont have bye. Be awesome to have OSU travel to Boise State in first round. Would promote college football much more if a big school has to play at the small.

Top 25 teams that the current top 10 has played this season.

#1 Oregon played against #13 Boise State and #2 Ohio State

#2 Ohio State played against #1 Oregon, #4 Penn State and later on this season against #5 Indiana

#3 Texas played against #11 Georgia and later this season against #15 Texas A&M

#4 Penn State played against #2 Ohio State

#5 Indiana hasn’t played any rank teams but is schedule to play against Ohio State

#6 Tennessee played against #9 Alabama, and is against #11 Georgia this Saturday

#7 BYU played against #14 SMU and #20 Kansas State

#8 Notre Dame played against #15 Texas A&M, #22 Louisville, and later this season against #16 Army

#9 Alabama played against #11 Georgia, #23 South Carolina, #6 Tennessee, #24 Missouri, #21 LSU

#10 Ole Miss played against #23 South Carolina, #21 LSU, #11 Georgia

Friendly reminder for the college championship match two season ago where it was GA vs TCU; TCU was lost one game in OT but then gotten destroyed by Georgia in the championship match. It’s easy to stay undefeated when you don’t play against any ranked teams.

I say college football playoffs should if it was up to me have it release the official playoffs bracket after thanksgiving rivalry weekend. Right now Indiana is undefeated but thanksgiving weekend will be there first match up of the season against a rank team. Like I know they are good against unranked teams but how are they against a high ranked team.

Pat, I have something only you can bring attention to. Look at the Criteria for voting on the CFP website. There are four important pillars #1 is SOS #2 Head to Head #3 Comparative teams/schedule #4 Missing players/availability. With this criteria in mind, why would Colorado be ahead of Washington State and UNLV and Better yet why would Notre Dame and Miami with worse losses and worse wins be ahead of Boise State? Its a mathematical impossibility. Is this just cheating? What is this? They are literally ignoring their own criteria. Notre Dame had a 77th SOS. and a horrible loss 2 decent wins. Boise State had 59th SOS and 1 Great loss to #1 Oregon and 2 Good wins. Its not possible for Notre Dame to be ahead unless someone is cheating by using brand bias. Its literally impossible. Please help us understand this point. THE EYE TEST IS NOT one their website. This means you can't "think" teams are better than others. Its pure resume.

Big 10 is always overrated. Every bowl season the crap the bucket

The difference is due to the AP voters being journalists with no qualifications and don't watch every game, the CFB rankings have people who actually know what they're doing.

Truthfully this entire system is flawed. It's based on "eye tests", brand bias, and marketability. Why show a bracket every week whenever the only one that matters is the final reveal?

What if ohio state lose hmmm