Winners and Losers of the Week 15 College Football Playoff Rankings
For a solid week, the debate has raged over whether Miami should—but, more impactfully, would—rank higher than Notre Dame.
The regular season ended in Week 15, a Saturday during which the 'Canes put together an emphatic win at Pitt. Notre Dame, meanwhile, closed its campaign with a straightforward victory at Stanford.
Decision day arrived on Tuesday.
Wouldn't you know it, the College Football Playoff selection committee gave us another surprise: Both Miami and Notre Dame emerged as losers.
The updated CFP Top 25 is below:
1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Georgia
4. Texas Tech
5. Oregon
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma
9. Alabama
10. Notre Dame
11. BYU
12. Miami
13. Texas
14. Vanderbilt
15. Utah
16. USC
17. Virginia
18. Arizona
19. Michigan
20. Tulane
21. Houston
22. Georgia Tech
23. Iowa
24. North Texas
25. James Madison
Winner: Alabama, Somehow
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Blow a 17-point lead and nearly lose to a 5-6 team? Apparently, that's enough to move up in the rankings, baby!
Alabama survived an adventurous game at rival Auburn, clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game and climbed from 10th in the CFP Top 25 to ninth. That is a very important rise because the Crimson Tide are no longer sitting on the cut line at risk of a bid-stealer like BYU.
Yeah, I know the Iron Bowl always gets weird at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Wins are always a good thing, too.
If you're like me, nevertheless, you might be rolling your eyes.
Alabama needed a fourth-quarter comeback to clip a bad South Carolina team, unimpressively beat LSU, lost to Oklahoma and escaped Auburn in the final four meaningful games of its season. That's not thriving at the finish.
Yet the committee deemed Bama should rise anyway.
Fortunately for my angry Tide fans out there, all of this noise can be made irrelevant if Alabama beats Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Wrap up the automatic bid, and none of these reactions will ultimately matter.
Heading into the last weekend, though, Bama is extremely fortunate to have ascended from the Playoff bubble.
Loser: Miami *and* Notre Dame
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Oh boy, was I wrong.
My preconceived notion was that I would be devoting one "winner" section to Notre Dame or Miami and a "loser" to the other.
As we learned thanks to Alabama, the reality for these programs was worse. Notre Dame dropped to 10th for no good reason, and Miami—despite an absolute beatdown of Pitt on the road—didn't even climb higher than BYU, let alone see if that head-to-head victory over ND would finally carry weight.
Instead, Notre Dame has traded spots with Bama on the bubble.
And for Miami, the dream of a trip to the College Football Playoff—short of a shocking change of heart from the committee for the idle 'Canes to rise on Sunday, something that has never happened before—is dead.
Oh, but don't worry, it can happen.
"Teams that are idle can move up or down," CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek said during the ESPN rankings show.
Welcome to Whose Playoff Ranking Is It Anyway, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.
Winner: Oklahoma
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Largely lost in the Miami/Notre Dame racket was a legitimate possibility that eighth-ranked Oklahoma would dip slightly.
That could've been a significantly bad thing.
Why? Remember that in the CFP's opening round, the 5-8 seeds all host the contest. Checking in ninth, as Alabama did, means playing in front of what's destined to be a raucous, partisan crowd.
Sure, OU holds a 10-2 record. Yes, that victory over Alabama proved essential in the Sooners' postseason status. Definitely, this defense is awesome.
But we certainly aren't watching a great offense right now.
In the second half of the season, OU posted a 5-1 record on the play of its defense. The offense never cracked 400 yards in that span—and though it came close last weekend, three turnovers nearly crushed the Sooners' CFP dreams.
Oklahoma fully deserves its Playoff spot but should be particularly thankful it's still positioned to host a first-round game.
Safe to say OU is pulling hard for Georgia and Texas Tech this weekend.
Loser: BYU
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BYU, meanwhile, is sitting on the wrong side of the cutoff line.
Given the Cougars hold an 11-1 record, the frustration is understandable. While the list of victories is not exceptional, they've toppled 10-2 Utah, 9-3 Arizona, three eight-win teams and 7-5 Cincinnati. It's certainly a solid group.
Not unexpectedly, though, BYU fell behind Miami in Tuesday's update. BYU went, unofficially, from the first team to the second team out.
Well, breathe, BYU fans. The sky is not falling.
The program can earn an automatic bid to the Playoff with a victory over Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship Game. Texas Tech—which smoked BYU 29-7 early in November—is a no-doubt, CFP-caliber team. If the Cougars win on Saturday, they'll prove themselves undeniably the same.
And if not, with two losses against that highest level of competition, perhaps BYU didn't really merit a spot in the Playoff anyway.
That verdict is entirely in BYU's hands.
Winner: James Madison
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Finally, the Dukes are here.
The selection committee—historically, not simply this current group—has always had a heavy lean toward power-conference teams. Rarely does any ranking have multiple Group of Five programs inside the Top 15, even Top 20.
So, in other words, it's not shocking the committee waited until the regular season ended for 11-1 James Madison to appear at No. 25.
The most important part? You (thankfully) don't see 7-5 Duke anywhere.
As long as JMU—a big favorite at home against Troy in the Sun Belt Championship Game—avoids an upset, the Dukes may steal a Playoff berth if Duke upends Virginia in the ACC title game.
Because of that aforementioned power-conference bias, it's possible the committee would launch Duke in front of JMU. But the more likely outcome is the Group of Five would prevent the ACC from seeing its champion in the CFP.
Go Duke(s)? Go Duke(s).
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