Gary Barta explains when head-to-head matchups matter

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 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 controversy 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.

Head-to-head value

Gary Barta took his usual line of questions from ESPN’s Rece Davis, addressing the committee’s head-to-head decisions.

“Well Rece, head-to-head is certainly one of the criteria we use – one of the things we evaluate,” said Barta. “In Oregon and Ohio State’s case, Oregon has been playing terrific football as of late. They won the other day against Washington State. Ohio State is playing some of the best offense in the country, they had a nice win against Purdue – a convincing win against Purdue. But when it comes down to those two – the fact that Oregon went to Ohio State and beat them in the Horseshoe – when the vote came down again this week, that’s where the vote came out.

“With Michigan-Michigan State the committee – when we met a week ago – talked about Michigan being a more complete team. Since then, another game has been played. Michigan State looked good against Maryland and Michigan came from behind and won on the road at Penn State. Every week 13 people recast their votes. So when the votes were cast this week, that’s the way it came out.”

Controversial comments

When asked to go further in-depth on his repeated comments about Michigan’s status as a “complete team” Barta seemingly dug a hole for himself – at least in the eyes of college football analysts and fans.

“If you look at it statistically – set aside watching the games, that’s certainly a part of it – but statistically in just about every category offensively and defensively Michigan comes out on top over Michigan State,” said Barta. “Again, it certainly is understood and considered that Michigan State beat Michigan, but at the end of the day the committee added another game this week and the committee decided that Michigan is still needing to be ranked a game ahead of Michigan State. Next week we’ll come back and we’ll look at it again.”

While Gary Barta’s explanation of head-to-head importance will do just fine for Oregon and Michigan fans, others take issue with the inconsistency. However, as the final authority, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee has issued its ruling for the week.