Boo Corrigan explains ranking Oregon ahead of Texas, Alabama in College Football Playoff rankings

The College Football Playoff rankings often get contentious at this point of the year, with teams jockeying for all-important positioning and a potential playoff berth.

In few places is that jockeying more fierce right now than between spots No. 6 to No. 8. Currently the order is Oregon, Texas, then Alabama. CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan was asked about the debate unfolding at those spots and the justification for the current order.

“Again, looking at the (Oregon) win over Utah, understanding that Texas has a win over Alabama,” Corrigan said. “Alabama comes back and wins over Mississippi, Tennessee, LSU. But it’s a compilation of everything that I was talking about. … It’s not one single metric.”

In other words, the committee isn’t going to give you a simple answer on the order of the three. But in their view, Oregon has the best overall case right now.

Corrigan defended the committee’s current decisions in the College Football Playoff rankings by reiterating how much time goes into the selection process.

“We spend a lot of time on it, and we want to make sure we get it right,” Corrigan said. “It’s not, we do it one time and then move on. We’ll do it one time and then come back to it again and come back to it again, and make sure that in Week 10, everyone’s comfortable with where we are.”

Greg McElroy critical of Oregon’s resume

At least one college football analyst wasn’t satisfied with the committee’s explanation on Oregon ranking above both Texas and Alabama: Greg McElroy.

“We need to kind of look at Oregon’s resume a bit. We saw Ohio State on the one line last week because of one reason. Why? That was the resume. And we are not paying attention to the resume as it relates to Oregon. They have one win against a team with a winning record at the moment. That team is Utah. Their next-best win is 4-5 Colorado. Their next best win after that is 4-5 Washington State,” McElroy said.

He added that the two one-loss teams directly trailing the Ducks in the College Football Playoff rankings — Texas and Alabama — have notably more impressive resumes. Texas has a road win over Alabama and a bevy of wins over teams with winning records. Alabama is a similar story, with the lone loss to the Longhorns keeping them stuck behind Texas for the time being.

Both, though, have better resumes than Oregon, in McElroy’s eyes.

“Whereas Texas has beaten five teams with a winning record, including a win on the road in Tuscaloosa, and Alabama’s beaten four. So, if we’re really going to value the eye test, and I think it should absolutely be a factor, there needs to be more of a debate about the one-loss teams,” McElroy said.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this report.