Boo Corrigan explains weight given to wins vs. strength of schedule in College Football Playoff rankings

The latest edition of the College Football Playoff rankings debuted on Tuesday night and while there weren’t many changes in the spots that mattered, there was still plenty of intrigue.

A trio of one-loss teams are jockeying for position from No. 6 to No. 8, all with varying cases to be made why they should be ranked ahead of the other.

But are any of the three deserving of being ranked ahead of a currently undefeated team? There have been question marks about strength of schedule for programs like Michigan and Florida State, despite the fact that they’re unbeaten.

College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Boo Corrigan was asked directly by ESPN’s Rece Davis how the committee weighs things when comparing an undefeated team to a team with one loss and whether strength of schedule could be the difference-maker in pushing a one-loss team over the top.

“Again, as we’re building this in Week 11 we’re going to look at everything that’s happened to date, where they’re playing, etc.,” Corrigan said. “But winning matters. We talk about it every year as we go into this, that winning games matters.”

That’s reflected in the College Football Playoff committee’s rankings so far, with very few spots in the ranking where the simple win/loss metric isn’t reflected. One such spot is at No. 9, where a two-loss Missouri ranks in front of a one-loss Louisville.

Of course, that discrepancy wouldn’t draw near the scrutiny a similar discrepancy with an undefeated team and a one-loss team would.

Corrigan continued to reiterate that wins matter.

“Lot of really good teams. The top eight didn’t change as far as the actual teams in there, there was just a little bit of shifting,” Corrigan said. “And to y’all’s point earlier, the head-to-head does matter.”

The good news is several games in upcoming weeks should help to alleviate any real issues between the teams around the top four of the College Football Playoff rankings.

There are still two weeks of regular season games left, then a round of conference championship games.

As Corrigan noted, a lot of really good teams with a lot of games still remaining.