Greg McElroy calls out AP poll 'brand bias,' Clemson's strength of schedule

Tuesday night marked one week until the first College Football Playoff rankings reveal of the year. That meant it was the final time the AP poll would be used to project the 12-team field and be the official Top 25 rankings.

ESPN’s Greg McElroy sounded like he’s looking forward to the first CFP rankings. He had multiple disagreement with the latest AP poll, including Clemson’s position, which he said could be a product of “brand bias.”

McElroy pointed out the issues with Clemson’s strength of schedule following a season-opening loss to Georgia. The Tigers have rattled off six straight wins after that blowout defeat, but McElroy noted what each of those teams has in common: they’re all below the .500 mark.

“I’m looking at Clemson, and while I’ve been impressed – I know you guys have, too – with their response after the Week 1 defeat at the hands of Georgia, who’s it come against?” McElroy said. “They have registered all these wins, and not a single one of those wins has come against a team that is currently above .500.

“So while I’m impressed with their game control and with their eye test and their ability to respond to early adversity, I feel like we might be baking in a little bit of brand bias with where Clemson’s at right now in the rankings.”

Greg McElroy calls for more teams to receive respect

Through seven games, Clemson’s strength of schedule ranks No. 75 in the country, according to ESPN’s FPI. The Tigers came in tied for No. 11 in the latest AP poll with Iowa State, which is still undefeated this year and tied for first in the Big 12.

But Greg McElroy pointed out the way AP voters look at the other team atop the Big 12 standings to show his point. If the CFP rankings looked like the AP Top 25, BYU – as the projected conference champion – would be the No. 4 seed, drawing the winner of the No. 5 vs. No. 12 game.

McElroy argued the Cougars deserve more respect, as does Indiana, which has become the story of college football en route to an 8-0 record. The Hoosiers have a notable win over Nebraska on their resume, but have still faced the 106th-ranked schedule so far, according to ESPN.

Neither IU or BYU have been in the College Football Playoff conversation until this year. Based on their seasons so far, McElroy said the committee should give them more love when the rankings start to come out.

“I think it’s something we’ve got to acknowledge,” McElroy said of the AP Top 25. “Thank goodness the AP is not the one responsible for this unbelievable Playoff bracket that we have because if it was, we’d be a lot more frustrated on Tuesday nights. But I’ll say this, I think the committee’s going to remove this because if you look at what BYU’s accomplished, for example. The fact that BYU is in the position that they’re in, having to potentially play against a 5-seed, assuming they win the Big 12 and they become the 4-seed, they should be looking at a possibility of jumping Miami and avoiding the 5-seed or whoever the runner-up is in the Big Ten or the SEC, who we assume gets that No. 5 seed, could potentially be massive for the fallout and the shakeout along the rest of the way.

“So I’m looking at this, where’s Indiana? I look at Indiana, Indiana’s killing everybody. I know that their combined record of the teams they’ve played are nine games under .500. The one team they played with a pulse was Nebraska, and they crushed Nebraska. We saw Nebraska go the following week and give Ohio State all they [had]. So I’m not sure we’re giving enough love right now to Indiana, I don’t think we’re giving enough love to BYU because we haven’t seen them on the cusp of a Playoff spot in the past, so therefore, we’re allowing it to cloud our judgment here in the present. I hope that now that everyone has access to the Playoff, we’re able to more remove ourselves from what we think teams are capable of based on the recruiting rankings and what they’ve accomplished in the past.