Fans, media continue to be perplexed by CFP Committee's confounding rationale
The college football viewing public is not real thrilled with the College Football Playoff selection committee right now.
The Michigan Wolverines remained one spot ahead of the Michigan State Spartans in the CFP Top 25 this week despite MSU owning a 37-33 head-to-head win over UM.
That win didn’t come at the start of the season or early in conference play when neither team was where it is now, that win came three weeks ago, on Oct. 30.
And yet the Spartans have been ranked ahead of the Wolverines for just one week since. After losing to Purdue, MSU dropped below Michigan. Both teams have just 1 loss on the season. It’s a remarkably similar situation to the Oregon-Ohio State discussion at Nos. 3 and 4 in the ranking.
Oregon, which owns a head-to-head win over Ohio State in Week 2, has the edge over the Buckeyes in the CFP rankings (though both are in the 4-team field as of now).
When asked about the head-to-head weight by ESPN on Tuesday night, here’s what CFP Chair Gary Barta said:
“Set aside watching the games, though that’s certainly a part of it. But statistically in just about every category, offensively and defensively, Michigan comes out on top over Michigan State.”
No one liked that comment.
Yet. Michigan State leads in the most important stat of all…who won the game. https://t.co/Olh4jZuUhj
— Andrew Hammond (@ahammALDC) November 17, 2021
Rece Davis: Why is Michigan ahead of Michigan State?
Gary Barta: "Set aside watching the games…"
That's all you need to know about the College Football Playoff committee & the man that's in charge of it.
— Justin Thind (@JustinThind) November 17, 2021
What Barta *could* say is, Oregon went into Columbus and led the entire game, whereas Michigan State had to come back from a big deficit at home against Michigan. We don't view those the same.
Would make more sense than: Trust us, Michigan is more complete than Michigan State."
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 17, 2021
Correct. It lost to … (triple checks again just to be sure) … Michigan State. https://t.co/hrWOYrqfGA
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 17, 2021
So head-to-head matters for Ohio State and Oregon but not Michigan and Michigan State?! This is a joke.
— RJ Young (@RJ_Young) November 17, 2021
MICHIGAN STATE BEAT THEM, GARY https://t.co/9CFu8nXc1d
— George Stoia III (@GeorgeStoia) November 17, 2021
I still don’t understand Oregon over Ohio State and Michigan over Michigan State. In a vacuum, either decision is very much reasonable. But the criteria to put Oregon over OSU and then Michigan over MSU is completely contradictory. Either OSU>ORE & U-M>MSU or ORE>OSU & MSU>U-M.
— Scott Bell (@sbell021) November 17, 2021
Why, again, is Michigan ahead of Michigan State when Oregon is still ahead of Ohio State? Does head-to-head matter or not?
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 17, 2021
The CFP committee is a joke. One week it’s eye test. The next time it’s resume. This weeks it’s stats. In the end, it’s all brand. I.e Michigan vs Michigan State.
— Dr. SEC (@thedrsec) November 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/SchutteCFB/status/1460767350572175360