Dan Mullen blasts College Football Playoff rankings having Ohio State at No. 2
Former Florida coach and current ESPN analyst Dan Mullen watched the unveiling of the first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night and had some opinions on where the committee has Ohio State ranked.
That opinion, in short: Ohio State is ranked too high.
He tweeted some resume facts on Tuesday night, underscoring a few things he seemed to see as inconsistencies in how the teams were ordered in the first CFP rankings.
In short, he seems to think both Georgia and TCU have more impressive wins than Ohio State right now. With all three of those teams unbeaten, the case for the Buckeyes being ahead right now trends toward the eye test.
ESPN analyst David Pollack pointed out that the committee does seem to jump around on which criteria it is using depending on the team.
“Here’s the thing: I think we look at eye test for some of these,” Pollack pointed out. “Tennessee, one, is strength of record, eye test two. Two, Ohio State, that’s more eye test. Alabama being ahead of TCU is more eye test. So it’s always interesting to try to plug and fill the void of whichever one they’re going to use, but it’s definitely kind of a mixed bag, I think, between strength of record, what you’ve done and the eye test.”
Ohio State too high in CFP rankings? TCU too low?
Dan Mullen wasn’t the only one who had some dissenting opinions on the first edition of the 2022 CFP rankings.
FOX analyst Joel Klatt also went scorched earth discussing TCU’s ranking at No. 7 overall.
“So, @TCUFootball has two wins that are better than any win Clemson has… @ClemsonFB is not a bad football team, but TCU got snubbed by brand bias…If Texas or OU had the exact same resume as TCU they would by no lower than 4,” Klatt wrote on Twitter.
Clemson debuted at No. 4, three spots ahead of TCU at No. 7. Between them is an undefeated Michigan at No. 5, while No. 6 Alabama has one loss — to the top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. To Klatt’s points, those are also two of the top “brands” in college football.
Is Ohio State buoyed by the same kind of brand bias? Perhaps.
Of course, much of that will be sorted out over the coming weeks in future editions of the CFP rankings as games between some of the top contenders continue to play out.