Why Oklahoma’s ranking doesn’t matter yet, plus other CFP rankings notes

Only one team nationally enters Week 10 at 9-0. It’s Oklahoma.

Yet despite being 9-0 and ranked No. 4 in both the AP and Coaches polls, the Sooners were No. 8 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night. That puts Oklahoma behind four teams that already have lost — No. 2 Alabama (7-1), No. 4 Oregon (7-1), No. 5 Ohio State (7-1) and No. 7 Michigan (7-1).

In reality, it doesn’t matter all that much. Why? The Sooners have big opportunities to prove themselves to the Playoff Selection Committee the rest of the way.

Oklahoma closes out the regular season with matchups against the top three teams behind them in the Big 12 standings — No. 12 Baylor, Iowa State and No. 11 Oklahoma State — and then will face one of those three in the Big 12 title game. Wins in each of those games likely would earn the Sooners a Playoff berth despite current concerns the committee has about Oklahoma’s strength of schedule (each of the Sooners’ first nine opponents has at least three losses) and a lack of dominance in several of those games; five of the wins have come by seven or fewer points, and one of the others was over one-win Kansas in a game Oklahoma trailed in the fourth quarter.

“They’re undefeated, so they get a lot of credit for that,” CFP committee chairman Gary Barta said. “But … defensive struggles throughout the year certainly was discussed. The other thing that was discussed is Oklahoma is still trying to find their identity, but certainly when they added Caleb Williams at quarterback, the committee agreed that the offense certainly changed in a positive way. But we may be seeing it impacting the whole team, defense included.

“(Eight) is where they’re at right now, but that switch in quarterback, I think everybody agreed, it’ll be fun to watch from here forward. But, yeah, those close calls are seen by the committee just like everybody else.”

Head-to-head win has Oregon ahead of Ohio State

A head-to-head win factored largely into the committee’s decision to rank Oregon at No. 4 ahead of Ohio State at No. 5 but it wasn’t the only factor.

“If you look at Ohio State, you look at who they’ve played so far; they won at Minnesota and they beat Penn State,” Barta said. “That was a good game the other night (versus Penn State). Offensively, who can argue with what’s happened with (C.J.) Stroud and (TreVeyon) Henderson and (Chris) Olave and (Garrett) Wilson. That’s been impressive. But they don’t yet have a signature win, and because Oregon had beaten them head-to-head, that certainly was an important criteria.

“Oregon had also beaten similar-type teams. Fresno State is 7-2 and they won at UCLA, so those sort of had some similarity with Minnesota, the Minnesota win. At the end of the day, it was close enough that that head-to-head put them ahead of Ohio State, put Oregon ahead of Ohio State.”

Mississippi State makes Playoff history

Mississippi State, which is ranked No. 17, became the first three-loss team to be better than No. 20 in the initial Playoff rankings. It comes after the Bulldogs improved to 5-3 with a 31-17 win over then-No. 12 Kentucky.

“Mississippi State, certainly we don’t ignore those three losses,” Barta said. “They’re real, and we consider those. But in Mississippi State’s case, they have wins against North Carolina State, who the committee thinks highly of. Texas A&M, same there. Texas A&M obviously has a big win against Alabama. And then this past week winning impressively over Kentucky.

“Really in Mississippi State’s case specifically, I’ll just tell you the committee really focused on — those three wins impressed the committee enough to put them at 17.”

About Cincinnati . . .

Cincinnati’s likely going to have a tough time getting into the Playoff. While the No. 6 Bearcats have a signature win over No. 10 Notre Dame, their résumé is hurt by underwhelming performances in recent weeks, including a 27-20 win over Navy (which is 2-6) and a 31-12 victory over a Tulane squad that’s 1-7 (a game Cincinnati led by two at halftime).

“I can tell you that Cincinnati has tremendous respect from the committee,” Barta said. “They’re 8-0. The win at Notre Dame … it was a heck of a performance. It was a great win. But after that win, look at who else they’ve beaten. Look at who else they’ve played. Then most recently, watching them against — the last two weeks against a 2-6 Navy team, and understanding preparing for the option in that kind of game can be a challenge, but then the next week, just this past weekend against a 1-7 Tulane team. Tulane was able to run the ball effectively against them. They were starting a freshman quarterback.

“I think the Notre Dame win is realized here and shown here by the respect of being sixth in the country, but certainly Navy and Tulane and the rest of their schedule was taken under consideration.”

It likely doesn’t help Cincinnati’s case that the Bearcats’ other Power 5 win is over Indiana, which opened the season in the top 25 but after a number of injuries now is 2-6.