CFB Playoff Selection Committee Criteria Not Totally Clear Yet

It really isn't a surprise Oregon has moved into the #4 spot in the latest college football rankings released by the playoff selection committee.  Oregon, despite having a loss, looks to be the class of the Pac-12, which is neck and neck with the Big 12 to see which conference is second behind the SEC.

But, as always, the ranking will stir some debate.

After all, didn't the committee say head to head competition was important (Arizona defeated Oregon).  Didn't the committee say conference championships were important?  (The Big 10 could get  left out entirely, as could the Big 12.)

And, fans of those schools left out wil point to those criteria and say "Hey, what about this?"  But they need to remember, the specific criteria is one spoke in the wheel.

And, right now, the biggest spokes appear to be strength of schedule. And, the eye test as well.

Oregon, in addition to having just one loss on the year, has beaten both UCLA and, perhaps most importantly, Michigan State by a convincing margin (yes, I do think margin of victory is going to have something to do with this, unlike the BCS computers.). And, that UCLA win was on the road, which means something as well.  All that got them just a hair ahead of Alabama.  The Tide could displace Oregon with a road win over LSU regardless of what the Ducks do.

There are other interesting things in the latest rankings as well:

Kansas State has jumped over Michigan State.  Their loss to Oregon hurt.  Their Big Ten schedule hurts even more.  Kansas State and TCU play this weekend.  It will be interesting to see how the winner fares in the rankings next week.

Did you notice that, after Ole Miss, LSU has the highest rating of any two loss team?  How much of a bump would they get with a win over Alabama, especially with Ole Miss playing Presbyterian this week?

And, there are no schools from the "group of five" in the top 25 this week after East Carolina's loss.  The committee will make a separate ranking of that group if no one is in the top 25 at the end of the season.

After two weeks of rankings, there's still some question as to the method of the committee's madness.  Perhaps it will become clearer in the next couple of weeks.

Nah...probably not.