Before the release of the latest College Football Playoff Rankings on Tuesday, Stewart Mandel of The Athletic highlighted how No. 3 Texas is benefiting from an outdated system in college football polling.
“On Oct. 19, Georgia traveled to the sold-out Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium and convincingly defeated then-top-ranked Texas 30-15. Now, just three weeks later, the latest AP Poll places Texas (8-1) at No. 3 in the nation, while Georgia (7-2), which lost 28-10 to Ole Miss on Saturday, has fallen to No. 11.
This illustrates a long-standing tradition in college football rankings: teams are ranked based on their loss totals. Texas has one loss, while Georgia has two.”
Mandel also noted that Georgia, ranked No. 12, not only won decisively against Texas earlier this season but has faced a significantly tougher schedule than the Longhorns.
“Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs have already taken on three current top-10 teams—Alabama (7-2), Texas, and Ole Miss (8-2)—all on the road, and faced another Top 25 opponent, Clemson (7-2), at a neutral site. The Bulldogs are 2-2 in these matchups, having defeated Texas and Clemson (34-3), but losing closely to Alabama (41-34) and heavily to Ole Miss.
Conversely, Texas has faced only one current Top 25 team—Georgia—which it lost to at home by two touchdowns.”
This Saturday, Georgia will compete against another ranked team, No. 7 Tennessee, while Texas will play against unranked Arkansas, who has a 5-4 record.
If the Bulldogs win this weekend, would they surpass the Longhorns in the next College Football Playoff Rankings?
Unlikely.
Is Georgia, at this stage of the season, a superior team compared to Texas? Given their earlier convincing win against the Longhorns, Georgia would argue yes. Nevertheless, the College Football Playoff selection committee and voters of other major college football polls clearly disagree.
Additionally, when utilizing ESPN’s strength of record metric, Texas falls below Georgia in rankings. This metric gauges “the probability that an average Top 25 team would achieve a record equal to or better than the team’s,” and currently places the Bulldogs at No. 3, while the Longhorns are at No. 10.
In essence, Texas’s position at No. 3 in the College Football Playoff Rankings is quite misleading, potentially leaving a team with a stronger resume, like Georgia, outside of the final playoff lineup.
There was hope that the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams would help alleviate such issues, but it appears that there remains significant potential for discontent among multiple schools regarding the selection committee’s decisions at season’s end.
