The College Football Playoff Rankings saw a pretty major shakeup this week.
TCU moved back into the top four and even jumped ahead of undefeated Florida State in the process. An impressive climb or poor judgment by the committee?
Alabama is ranked first overall, followed by Oregon, TCU and FSU. Ohio State rounds out the top five. This week's rankings are the final set before the 12-member committee selects the four teams on Sunday that will participate in college football's first ever playoff tournament.
To his credit, FSU coach Jimbo Fisher isn't concerned with the lack of respect they're getting in the rankings.
"I don't worry about it," Fisher told reporters Tuesday. "We go play Georgia Tech. We take care of business, we'll be fine. I'm not surprised by anything anymore."
TCU beat Texas 48-10 last week for its sixth straight win. FSU won its 28th consecutive game with a 24-19 victory oover the in-state rival Florida Gators, yet still dropped a spot in the CFP rankings. TCU will play Iowa State this Saturday while FSU will take on Georgia Tech in the ACC championship.
No. 6 Baylor, which beat TCU on Oct. 11, is trying desperately to sneak into the top four. The Bears have even hired a public relations firm to help them showcase "additional support in telling the Bears' story over the last few weeks of the football season," Nick Joos, executive athletic director for external affairs, said.
The PR firm is reaching out to media members, not committee members, with specific statistics and observations from this season.
"We're at the point, we're waiting for results now," selection committee chairman and Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long said Tuesday night. "We're waiting for teams to complete their body of work. Again, we don't project out. We've all seen games that have different outcomes than we expect.
"We focus on what has been accomplished to this point, and with that regard, the top four teams to this point are ranked where the committee believes they should be."
TCU and Baylor will have played 10 common opponents by season's end. The major separating factor is that the Horned Frogs played Minnesota while the Bears played Buffalo.
"As we pointed out before, TCU has five wins over teams with winning records or .500 records and above, and Baylor has three, if you include Texas at 6-6," Long said. "I can't say it's one thing. It's a number of things we look at, and we believe TCU is better and deserving of that No. 3 rank over Baylor."
If both teams win out, the two will be co-champions of the Big 12, further muddling the committee's selection process.
"Well, first we will not determine a champion for the Big 12," Long said. "We've discussed to this point, and then we will wait for the results, and then we will evaluate those teams, and that's when the conference championship comes into effect.
"We have not had the discussions about 'What if there's a co-champion?'"
