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CFP chair Gary Barta comments on Michigan State’s No. 3 ranking
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Michigan State fans were hoping for good news Tuesday night with the reveal of the initial College Football Playoff rankings. And good news is what they got. The Spartans opened at No. 3.
It was somewhat surprising that 7-1 Alabama checked in one spot ahead of the Spartans, but should Michigan State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) keep winning, that might take care of things with one top-10 win already and possibly another waiting on the schedule. Alabama has none, and would need to beat Georgia in the SEC Championship to fix that.
As for the differentiator between No. 2 and No. 3, CFP chair Gary Barta was asked about it but gave a less-than-clear answer.
“Well, we did look (at a common opponent)—Michigan State beat Miami on the road, Alabama beat them at home,” Barta told members of the media Tuesday night. “So, it was discussed.”
(For clarity: Alabama played Miami at a neutral site in Atlanta to open the year.)
There just wasn’t enough weight in the road element to bump the Spartans ahead, it seems. Not when the committee valued Alabama so highly. “Even with the loss to Texas A&M, the committee looked at the quality across the board, their strength of schedule, their strong record,” Barta added of the Tide. “They ranked them No. 2, and it was a strong consensus.”
For the Spartans, No. 3 is still a strong position to be in, and they received a boost from a huge 37-33 win over Michigan—who the CFP committee ranked No. 7—over the weekend.
“A very impressive win this past weekend against a strong Michigan team,” Barta said. “You had two undefeated teams heading into that game, and it lived up to expectations, two really, really good teams. I think Kenneth Walker (III), he’s been coming on as one of the best running backs in the country, and that may have been the difference in the game. Clearly that Michigan-Michigan State game was important in the evaluation in putting Michigan State in third. But the win on the road to Miami was talked about as well as their strength of schedule, (which) is actually pretty solid and kind of the growing.”
It would seem Michigan State controls its destiny.
Left on the schedule are games against Ohio State (7-1, 5-0 Big Ten), who the committee ranked No. 5, and Penn State (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten). If the Spartans can run the table and make it to the Big Ten title game, it figures to face one of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Iowa, each of whom was ranked in the initial CFP rankings.
The Spartans take the field again on Saturday against Purdue on the road. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.