Greg McElroy lists teams that look 'fantastic'

Greg McElroy likes to put his College Football Playoff contenders and top teams into tiers on his Always College Football with Greg McElroy podcast. He has six different groups he will put the teams in from Playoff Locks to Giant Killers.

There were no teams ranked as Playoff Locks this past week and instead five teams slotted in to the second group, which is “Look fantastic and have a really good win.”

The previous week, only Oklahoma had been in the tier. Now Florida State, Georgia, Ohio State and Washington have all joined.

“One team there last week, it was Oklahoma,” McElroy said on an episode of his podcast this week. “They are holding steady. Of course, the Texas win is still a really, really good win. That’s why they are still entrenched here in group number two. But I’ve added four other teams to Group 2.”

The four other teams each found there way into Group 2 in different ways. For the Bulldogs, it was the result of them falling from Playoff Locks down a notch.

There are a lot more challenges on the back half of Georgia’s schedule than McElroy originally anticipated.

“Georgia drops from Group 1 to Group 2,” McElroy said. “I think they have a really good win. I think the Kentucky win, even though they’re 5-2, is still a pretty good win. Granted, it was more the way they looked against Kentucky. It was so convincing to the point in which it was just a complete beat down there in the second half of that football game. They came out and just lit it on fire from the very beginning. So while I actually look at Georgia schedule, it strengthens drastically down the stretch. There are some teams that I didn’t anticipate being this good this point of season, like a Missouri, like a Tennessee, like an Ole Miss. There are some teams that we weren’t sure about and Georgia plays all three of those here in the next few weeks after the game with Florida after the bye week. So Georgia is in Group 2 at the moment.”

The Huskies made their first appearance in Group 2 after defeating Oregon in a thrilling matchup this past weekend. Washington had previous wins that were impressive during the season but the triumph over the Ducks is in a class of its own.

McElroy said it is pound-for-pound maybe the best win of the year.

“Washington has now moved up from Group 3 into Group 2 with a win against Oregon,” McElroy said. “You can make a case it’s one of the best two wins of the college football season. Now depending on how you rank both Oregon and Texas. Of course, Oklahoma beat Texas. Washington beat Oregon. Oklahoma did so in a neutral site, Washington did so at home. How do you stack ’em up? That’s up to you. I think right now Oregon would probably beat Texas. Just a personal opinion. I would have Oregon just slightly ahead of Texas. But if you have Texas slightly ahead of Oregon, I don’t have a problem with that. Either way, Washington has beaten one of the best teams in the country and that’s why they are firmly in Group No. 2.”

Both the Seminoles and Buckeyes had previously made their homes in Group 2 but had been in Group 3 the previous week.

The reasons for them moving up and down different groups has nothing to do with anything they did but instead because of their opponents. Their respective wins over Notre Dame and LSU have been volatile in terms of strength during the year.

“Ohio State is back into Group No. 2,” McElroy said. “They were in Group No. 3 last week because the Notre Dame win that they had wasn’t looking so good. Notre Dame, frankly after the loss to Louisville, I was wondering man are the wheels gonna come off just a little bit. Well, Notre Dame righted the ship a little bit and Ohio State is back in group two as a result because that is a really, really good win. Then Florida State is back into Group 2 as well. That LSU win is back to being a really good win, not that dissimilar to Notre Dame. There was a point when LSU had two losses and they couldn’t defend. Their defensive looked awful. Well now LSU is rounding into form. Looked a little better defensively against Auburn and, of course, the offense continues to deliver juggernaut type numbers. Florida State is in Group No. 2 as well.”