Greg McElroy keeps stumping for BYU over disrespect from College Football Playoff committee

BYU clocked in at No. 6 and holds the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, were the field picked today. But despite a move up in the latest rankings from the selection committee, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy is still stumping for the Cougars.

A week after he said BYU — still undefeated after escaping rival Utah with a win on Saturday — should be upset at being ranked behind a slew of teams already with losses, McElroy still wasn’t jazzed about the ascent. He felt the committee was correcting an error from a week prior, and one that almost didn’t get fixed, had BYU lost.

“Look, BYU was a holding foul away from losing that game and they came back and won,” McElroy said. “Now the committee does what they should’ve done a week ago, moving them up into the six spot, where they belong.”

BYU ranked No. 6 in the rankings but held the No. 3 seed as the third-highest ranked projected conference champion. Last week, the Cougars were No. 9 overall, and therefore the No. 4 seed.

But one of the teams ahead of them, Miami, lost for the first time and more losses ahead made room for a jump up, host Rece Davis pointed out.

“I don’t know that it’s a correction, so much as it is a response to two teams ahead of them losing,” Davis said. “You had Miami and Georgia both losing, so they do get an extra spot out of it.”

While McElroy might still be stumping for BYU to get the respect as a Power 4 unbeaten, the fact remains that if the Cougars go undefeated, the rankings now will matter little.

Davis and McElroy went back and forth following the 1st rankings

Sitting at No. 9, BYU would’ve earn the fourth seed in the bracket but was in danger of being leapfrogged by No. 12 Boise State for the bye. And McElroy questioned why the Cougars weren’t ranked in front of teams that have worse resumes, even if they’re bigger brand names.

“I’m a little frustrated. If I’m BYU, I’m really upset,” McElroy said. “First and foremost: One, I run the risk of not securing a first round bye if Boise State ends up in front of me. So, the fact that there’s only a margin of three spots between 12 with Boise State and BYU at nine is ridiculous. Also, I’m sitting there behind Texas.”

He was briefly interrupted.

“It’s ridiculous?” Davis said, his voice tinged with an incredulous tone.

McElroy continued unabated, pointing to BYU not only having an unbeaten record, something teams ranked ahead of it do not, but also having better wins.

“I’m talking about from BYU’s perspective,” McElroy said. “I’m sitting there behind Texas, Penn State. I’m also sitting there behind Tennessee. Texas and Penn State don’t have a win against a Top 25 team. I have two. So if I’m BYU — and, guess what? I haven’t lost. So if I’m BYU, I’m a little frustrated with how this thing has shaken out and I know it’s early and I know there’s plenty still on the table and they have to go to Utah this week, I get that. But I just feel like them being at nine, four spots behind teams that have no wins even close to what they’ve accomplished and a couple losses that they don’t have, to me would be remarkably frustrating.”