Brady Quinn destroys AP poll for existing in College Football Playoff era

Former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn was on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday to talk all things college football-related. One of the big things Patrick asked Quinn was if he took issue with the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season. And the former fighting Irish signal-caller gave a very unique perspective on the rankings.

“I didn’t have a problem with it and it was really for this reason,” said Quinn to open. “I think so many people who are outraged by it they were manipulated by The Associated Press poll, the AP poll. Which here’s the truth, we gave away the power to this college football committee seven years, ago back in 2014. So if you wanted to buy into where people who ranked preseason polls and throughout the season up until the point, before the committee actually came out with their first poll, that’s on you.

“Like you are putting your stock and weight in something that doesn’t matter. like I’m sorry it just hasn’t mattered since we’ve gotten the College Football Playoff and since we’ve anointed a 13 person committee. So I wasn’t really taken back by it, it was really more what I thought it was gonna be because we’ve seen throughout its history at this point a season they rely on the eye test and factoring in essentially strength of schedule and who you beat not who you’ve lost to.”

CFP Selection Committee chair makes sense of Cincinnati at No. 6

No team had a wider landing zone than Cincinnati, which draws strong opinions on either side. In the end, the Bearcats worst fears came true behind several one-loss teams. Despite their 8-0 record, and a road win over Notre Dame, Cincinnati sits on the outside looking in.

“I would say the committee has great respect for Cincinnati,” College Football Playoff chairman Gary Barta said. “The win at Notre Dame is a really impressive win. When you look at their schedule after that – or who they played after that – who else did they beat? So that was the other question. The committee has been watching games all year and – most recently in the last two weeks – a 2-6 Navy team and then a 1-7 Tulane team with a freshman quarterback starting. Very impressive win against Notre Dame, a lot of respect, but looking at the whole picture we feel No. 6 was the right place for Cincinnati.”

Cincinnati can take some solace in a record-setting performance, becoming the highest ranked team in the CFP era. However, the question now centers on the Bearcats ceiling. Can they make the CFP’s final four?

“We don’t talk about a ceiling at all, again, we look at what’s happened so far,” Barta said. “We don’t project ahead. I think most everybody knows that. We look at what’s happened so far. Cincinnati earned their way to the No. 6 spot with that big win – being undefeated – and with that big win at Notre Dame. We haven’t talked at all about a ceiling so I really am not ready to say there’s a ceiling.”

On3’s James Fletcher III contributed to this article