Paul Finebaum, Heather Dinich break down initial impressions of College Football Playoff rankings

With the first College Football Playoff rankings in, Paul Finebaum and Heather Dinich broke down their initial impressions and what could happen moving forward.

As it stands, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan and Florida State round out the top four. Finebaum was high on Georgia, but understood why Ohio State took the top spot.

But the logic he explained was the committee’s, not his own.

“This committee valued Ohio State’s schedule Greeny,” Finebaum said on Get Up. “What we’re talking about here is a win at Notre Dame and a win against Penn State are both highly regarded. Other than that you can’t judge on eye tests because Ohio State has, at times, not look all that great, or I think Georgia in recent weeks has looked a lot better.

“I think they ignored putting Michigan higher for a lot of reasons, which we’ll get to in a minute. But the biggest reason is that Michigan’s schedule has been pathetic.”

College Football Playoff rankings takeaways from ESPN

As far as the backend of the top four, Florida State might be on shaky ground, despite being undefeated, per Dinich.

“The SEC is just fine after a somewhat of a sluggish start,” Dinich said. “Three teams in the top 10, more than any other Power Five conference. The second thing I would take away is that Florida State, at No. 4, might be under some pressure to finish as an undefeated ACC champ. And I say that because the only other ACC team ranked in the top 25 is Louisville and they don’t play during the regular season. 

“They can obviously meet in the ACC championship game, but while Florida State’s end of season schedule includes Pitt, Miami, North Alabama and Florida, teams that are combined 17-15, you have teams like Georgia that are going to play three straight ranked opponents and can impress the committee and move up to that top spot. I think Florida State has very little margin for error.”

Georgia’s schedule helps out with ranked opponents and the Bulldogs could lock up the top spot easily and have no fear of anyone else taking it, even Ohio State. It just depends on how the committee looks at the strength of schedule.

Michigan’s strength of schedule is lower than anyone’s up top, but the Wolverines are a shoe-in for the top four if they keep winning. Like Ohio State, Michigan controls its own destiny.

WIth just four weeks left, the College Football Playoff rankings are only getting started.