Gary Barta discusses undefeated records, strength of schedule

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee provided its updated rankings heading into Week 12. After a stagnant Week 11 at the top, the top seven teams – expanded from the usual six again thanks to continued controversy – are Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Michigan and Michigan State. While the seven teams came out chalk, the order remains up for debate with several head-to-head dilemmas.

CFP Selection Committee chairman Gary Barta once again joined ESPN’s Rece Davis for a conversation about the Week 12 rankings, taking more time to address the controversies on everyone’s mind over the past two weeks. Despite setting early precedent with Oregon and Ohio State’s head-to-head result, the committee opted to move Michigan ahead of Michigan State with the same record, despite a head-to-head meeting one week earlier. They doubled down on that decision this week, keeping Michigan ahead of Michigan State after a pair of wins.

Value of an undefeated record

Gary Barta took his usual line of questions from ESPN’s Rece Davis, addressing the committee’s value on undefeated records, especially in a season filled with upsets.

“Being undefeated, it’s hard to do in any season at any level,” said Barta. “But we also – that’s why sometimes we have teams ranked – a one-loss team or maybe even a two-loss team someday ahead of an undefeated team because you look at the strength of schedule. You look at who beat who and who’s on that schedule – who they lost to, who they beat. So it’s not just about having a zero.

“There are a lot of upsets, I haven’t really paid attention to whether there are more upsets this year. I know early in the season that was the case – we had a couple this week – but not as many this week as in past weeks. So we’re just going to keep watching. There’s a lot of football left to be played and we’ll see what happens going forward.”

Importance of strength of schedule

In addition to the value of undefeated records, Gary Barta spoke on strength of schedule. Both lines of questioning prove vitally important for Cincinnati and the teams around as they jockey to become the first Group of Five playoff team.

“Every week when we talked about Cincinnati, the topic of strength of schedule comes up. And watching the game – you can see they have terrific players and it’s a very good football team – but strength of schedule is something that makes it more difficult to evaluate. So as games go forward, we’ll continue to watch it, but strength of schedule has been one of the issues.”