Fans, media react to Michigan being ranked above Michigan State

Everyone walked away from Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings show asking one question: What?

Michigan came in at No. 6 in this week’s Top 25, followed by Michigan State in the No. 7 spot. This comes 10 days after the Spartans defeated the Wolverines in East Lansing 37-33.

It appears that head-to-head results only matter for certain teams (Oregon-Ohio State) and not many others. The reasoning provided by College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Gary Barta didn’t provide much clarity, either.

Apparently, the committee views Michigan as “the more complete team” compared to Michigan State. Why play the games, right?

Twitter was ablaze with reaction from the committee’s decision to slot Jim Harbaugh’s team over Mel Tucker’s. Here are some of the best responses from Tuesday night:

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1458265148548911107?s=20

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1458260953196343298?s=20

If only there was some way to settle this Michigan-Michigan State dispute on the field

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) November 10, 2021

Michigan State fans trying to figure out how Michigan is one spot ahead: pic.twitter.com/hfaZcVogL1

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 10, 2021

6 Michigan
7 Michigan State

Both 8-1, they literally played two weeks ago. What a joke pic.twitter.com/xGpYVn4KQv

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) November 10, 2021

Ohio State is below Oregon because of head to head right? Then why is Michigan above Michigan State? Why is Auburn above Penn State? 🤨

— Barstool Ohio State (@BarstoolOSU) November 10, 2021

I’m old enough to remember when Michigan State beat Michigan head-to-head 10 days ago.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 10, 2021

Michigan over Michigan State despite the fact Sparty beat them 2 weeks ago? pic.twitter.com/BPvDoXOdaq

— Saturday Gameday (@SaturdayGameday) November 10, 2021

Ranking Michigan over Michigan State: weird but whatever, they've played more than one game each

Ranking Michigan over Michigan State while also ranking Oregon over Ohio State: lmao this is tremendous content

— Jason Kirk (buy my novel) (@JasonKirk_fyi) November 10, 2021

The funny thing is, Barta said the committee spent a half hour debating Michigan-Michigan State and there was a final score just sitting there on the screen the whole time.

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 10, 2021

Ohio State is the only team being penalized for a head to head loss?(OSU and Oregon both have 1 loss)

Auburn is ahead of unranked Penn State. (Both have 3 losses, and PSU won H2H)

Michigan is ahead of MSU (both have 1 loss, and MSU won H2H)

— Mr. Ohio (@MrOH1O) November 10, 2021

Michigan ahead of Michigan State is just a troll move. Typical of the committee.

— Tyler Garret Smith (@ArenaFanatic) November 10, 2021

Michigan State beat Michigan, and the #CFBPlayoff committee can't even rank the Spartans ahead of the Wolverines. Just mocking the sport now.

— RJ Young (@RJ_Young) November 10, 2021

https://t.co/0rVSvRtrDE pic.twitter.com/nagCwt0XTV

— Paul Harvey 🔨 (@HammerHarvey) November 10, 2021

The funniest part of Barta's explanation for Michigan over MSU of "they have a more complete team" basically says they think Michigan has a better roster but a terrible coaching staff. Which, I can't fault them for thinking.

— FrankieV UHND ☘️ (@FrankieV_UHND) November 10, 2021

https://twitter.com/PJHasTime/status/1458439895203123200?s=20

Still trying to wrap my head around Michigan over Michigan St in the CFP Ranking.

I’ve been a big defender of the Committee on a lot of things, but that doesn’t make any sense on any criteria right now.

— Jared Palmgren (@CFF_Jared) November 10, 2021