ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit discusses value of head-to-head in CFP rankings

There are a handful of head-to-head matchups that will cause some consternation when it comes to the newest College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings, with some victors still ranking behind teams they’ve beaten.

Texas ranks two spots ahead of an Oklahoma team it lost to, for one. LSU ranks two spots behind a Missouri team it beat, for another.

There are enough such cases in the initial College Football Playoff rankings that it bore discussion on ESPN as the ranking were revealed. The general consensus is that those discrepancies will likely resolve themselves over time.

“Head to head should matter when everything else is close and it’s like, ‘Well, these guys beat them head to head,'” ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said. “If a team is terrible, even though they’ve beat this one team, but they haven’t been consistent all the other weeks, I think it’s fair for the committee or anybody to be subjective enough to be able to realize, ‘Wow, hey, I know they beat them head to head, but if you looked at these two teams before and after that one matchup it’s two different teams. It’s obvious that’s a better team even though they lost that day.”

Which cases that applies to in the CFP rankings is up for debate.

In the case of Texas and Oklahoma, both teams feature only one loss. And you’d probably make the argument that Texas’ loss is a “better loss” than Oklahoma’s defeat against Kansas.

Still, the Sooners beat the Longhorns straight up.

In the case of LSU and Missouri, it’s a little less clear. The Bayou Bengals have two losses, while the Tigers from Columbia, Mo., have only one.

For now it appears the CFP rankings committee values the overall resume of Missouri more than that head-to-head loss at home.

Herbstreit seemed to be of the opinion that the head-to-head matchup should matter less the further into the season you are with more on the resume.

“So if it’s even, I agree with Greg (McElroy), I have no problem saying, ‘OK, they won head to head,'” Herbstreit said. “But if it’s sitting there at the end of the year 11-1 and 11-1 and one of those 11-1s beat better teams, has played better football and they lost that game, I don’t care that they lost. The other team should go.”