Joel Klatt comes after CFP committee over LSU ranking, SEC bias

One of the surprises of the first College Football Playoff rankings was LSU coming in at No. 10. That meant five SEC teams made the top 11 — and FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt didn’t hold back on his thoughts about that decision.

Klatt called out the CFP committee for putting so many SEC teams at the top of the rankings, and he said Tennessee’s ranking could be a catalyst for that. The Volunteers came in at No. 1 entering this week’s game against No. 3 Georgia, and Klatt said the committee wanted to give Tennessee a “backstop” to keep the Vols toward the top if they fall to the Bulldogs.

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“The SEC coalition is strong. Really strong, and rightly so,” Klatt said on “Breaking The Huddle with Joel Klatt” Wednesday. “They’ve got a lot of great teams this year, and I’m not going to say that they’re not. Having said that, five teams in the top 11, I thought, was a bit of an overreach. I thought five teams in the top 15 was more accurate. But there’s LSU, over-ranked — to a great degree, by the way. The biggest outlier as it relates to the AP poll and what they rose into the CFP. They’re at No. 10. And guess what LSU does for the SEC and, more specifically, Tennessee. It presents a really good backstop for Tennessee because Tennessee’s got that great win in Baton Rouge against LSU.

“So now, with LSU at 10, you’ve got this coalition where even if they were to lose to Alabama this week, they’re not dropping past 20, right? Now, Tennessee — even if they lose to Georgia — they’re not falling below TCU. But that’s only there if you’ve got the backstop of LSU. If LSU would’ve been more properly ranked at 14, 15, 16 and let’s say they lose to Alabama, they would’ve fallen into the low 20s, maybe even out of the rankings depending on the style of the game. But no, no, no, no. That’s not allowed because we’ve got to backstop Tennessee because heaven forbid that they were to fall below TCU if they would’ve lost. The coalition, the firewall, the SEC firewall, it is strong, it is built and it is real.”

CFP chair Boo Corrigan: LSU’s wins over Ole Miss, Mississippi State help justify No. 10 ranking

After the CFP rankings came out Tuesday night, chairman Boo Corrigan explained LSU’s ranking on a conference call with reporters.

“I think in large part, the win over Mississippi, the win over Mississippi State,” Corrigan said. “They did lose to Tennessee as well as to Florida State in the season. But they seem to be getting better and better once Coach Kelly and the quarterback have kind of meshed a little bit, if you will. And we saw them coming off of that Mississippi win as being a team that was worthy of being in the top 10.”

LSU will immediately get a chance to validate its lofty position in the initial CFP rankings. Up this weekend is a home date with No. 6 Alabama. The Tigers have won just one of the last 11 meetings with the Crimson Tide.

For now, though, Corrigan and the selection committee believe LSU’s head-to-head win over Ole Miss justifies its spot.