Greg McElroy disagrees with ESPN crew on LSU College Football Playoff chances

The ESPN College Football Playoff rankings reveal show saw Greg McElroy and the rest of the crew split on LSU‘s chances at reaching the playoff. McElroy pointed to CFP history with his breakdown, stating that a two-loss team has historically been passed over for a one or zero-loss team in the rankings.

While the rest of the analyst desk — Rece Davis, Joey Galloway and Kirk Herbstreit — understood McElroy’s point, they believed that the unusually good wins on LSU’s resume if they win the SEC Championship could give them the edge.

Greg McElroy doesn’t see LSU reaching the College Football Playoff

“I think this is gonna be fascinating right now, because there’s only ever been one two-loss team that’s ever had a legitimate argument beyond the current situation with LSU … We’ve never really seen a two-loss team with a legitimately credible argument,” started McElroy after seeing LSU at No. 7 in the latest rankings.

“But ultimately what the committee has always valued is that one or zero in the loss column. And when you measure everything up, and all we have is precedent, we have never seen a two-loss team get in — in favor of a one-loss team.

“I just don’t see a scenario where LSU can find their way in because I think Tennessee would be ahead of them. I think you would have a situation where the loser of Ohio State-Michigan would be ahead of them. And I think Georgia, even if they beat Georgia at 12-1 in the SEC Championship Game, might even still be ahead of them because they only have that one in the loss column.”

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Joey Galloway immediately disagreed with his fellow host’s take on the Tigers situation.

“I don’t agree with that. If LSU goes on, runs their schedule and beats Georgia — I don’t know that anybody stands in front of them. I think they’ve earned it at that point,” countered Galloway.

Galloway then used Oregon sitting at No. 6 in the nation after getting hammered by Georgia in Week 1 as proof that the committee allows room for teams to turn their season around with quality wins. Herbstreit agreed with Galloway, citing that beating Georgia in the final game of the season would be impossible to ignore.

“It would be interesting to see, because when you get a cluster of teams they look at head-to-head, they look at conference championship — there’s no necessarily metric that weighs more than the other. So you wonder Rece and Greg, in the case of LSU, I know what you’re saying about history and two losses. But if you’re LSU — now who knows what they’re gonna do, they could lose Saturday at Arkansas. They still have to go to A&M, those aren’t easy games for them when they have a bullseye on their chest,” said Herbstreit.

“But if they were to win out and then win an SEC Championship Game against Georgia? My gosh. I mean, even with those two losses it’s at least an interesting discussion. As the SEC champion? I don’t think you just kind of throw that to the side and say ‘well, Tennessee, you know they beat them head-to-head and Georgia’s Georgia.’ I mean that’s still, that’s a lot of weight for them to win out and then win in Atlanta.”

Davis closed the segment with an impassioned plea for Tennessee’s dominant win over the Tigers to be important despite LSU hypothetically taking down the Bulldogs.

“When you get beat by four touchdowns like LSU did against Tennessee, that has to matter too,” said Davis.