Gary Barta explains why Ohio State finished on top of Baylor in final CFP rankings

The College Football Rankings were pretty uncontroversial for spots one through four, however, selection committee chair Gary Barta found himself having to explain why Ohio State finished at No. 6 over No. 7 Baylor.

While the Buckeyes were shut out of contention for the Big Ten title, Baylor surged late to take down Oklahoma State for the Big 12 Championship. Despite the recent win for the Bears, Barta explains that overall Ohio State is still the better team in the eyes of the committee.

“Ohio State is a team that the committee has thought very highly of all season long,” Barta said on ESPN’s reveal show. “They’ve been in the Top 5. I think at one point they were at No. 2 in the country. Their loss to Michigan moved them down, but they’re still, if not the best offense in the country, certainly one of the best offenses in the country.

“Baylor absolutely gets credit for their win, their championship win,” Barta continued. “They have wins over top-15 teams. One of the things the committee did talk about was the loss to TCU. That definitely came up in the conversation.

“When the vote occurred, all those things were discussed, and based on those types of factors, the Committee just felt that Ohio State was a better football team than Baylor. Both terrific teams, but that Ohio State was the better team.”

Baylor takes on Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl while Ohio State faces the Utah Utes in the Rose Bowl.

Barta explains thought process on title game rematches

Gary Barta said on Sunday that rematches are not taken into consideration in the final rankings after revealing the top four teams in the final CFP rankings.

After Alabama and Georgia played each other in the SEC Championship, the two will not meet again in the Playoff semifinals. Instead, the Crimson Tide takes on Cincinnati and the Bulldogs get Big Ten champ Michigan. They could meet in the championship should they win their semifinal matchups.

After the rankings were made public, Barta offered a bit of clarity on the committee’s thought process.

“We come into the room and we line up the teams,” he said. “We talk about their strengths and weaknesses and then the (conference) championships. Then we rank them. We don’t look at matchups. We just look at No. 1, 2, 3 and 4.”

Barta also explained why the committee included the Bearcats at No. 4. Cincinnati defeated Houston in the AAC Championship to stay undefeated and become the first Group of 5 school to make the Playoff since its inception in 2014.

“Cincinnati is the last remaining undefeated team in the country. They just won a conference championship. Early in the year, we talked about how they beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame. The committee had a strong consensus that Cincinnati comes in at No. 4.”

Cincinnati’s inclusion in the Playoff is a monumental moment for the little guy, showing that it is possible. In 2017, fellow AAC team UCF finished its season undefeated but was left out of the Playoff. The Knights won the Peach Bowl and declared themselves the unofficial national champs. They again finished 12-0 the following year and were left out, but this time lost in the Fiesta Bowl.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.