Warde Manuel discusses possibility College Football Playoff committee flips Georgia, Texas rankings if Bulldogs win SEC

When the two met head to head in Austin earlier this year, it was a rather decisive victory for Georgia over Texas. But with a rematch set for the SEC Championship Game, the Longhorns are the higher-ranked squad.

That’s mostly by virtue of the Bulldogs having taken another loss. But with one game left, it raises an interesting question: Could the Bulldogs jump into Texas’ No. 2 ranking with a win on Saturday? And would Texas drop into Georgia’s now-vacated No. 5 slot?

It’s hard to say, and College Football Playoff selection committee chair Warde Manuel didn’t, when asked on Tuesday. It’s certainly possible, and he wouldn’t go so far as to rule out a Bulldogs-Longhorns flip-flop, but he didn’t exactly prognosticate it, either.

“I don’t know if it’s complicated, more it’s just going to be a conversation about the results of the game and where we see those teams based on the outcome of the game,” Manuel said. “So it’s not as simple as just saying, flip them. Others teams are playing; there’s other outcomes of games. But we will evaluate the results of that championship game between Texas and Georgia and then assess where those teams will fall and be ranked in the top 25.”

What is a safe bet, though, is that the loser of the rematch is still going to be in the field as an at-large team.

Given their respective starting points, though — No. 2 for Texas and No. 5 for Georgia — it’s fair to wonder if the Bulldogs would be dropped into a non-hosting rank, whereas Texas seems unlikely to sink that far with a second loss to the Bulldogs.

Either way, and no matter what specifically happens with the rankings, a first-round bye is on the line when the two squads rematch in Atlanta on Saturday.

Manuel explained what will be a controversial decision in the rankings

One of the biggest moves in the College Football Playoff rankings was the drop of Miami following a loss to Syracuse. The size of that drop drew immediate scrutiny from Hurricanes fans and fans of the sport in general.

As things stand, if the penultimate playoff rankings dictated the final rankings, Alabama would be into the field in the final spot, while Miami would be the first team left out.

Manuel joined ESPN to discuss the difference between the two teams on Tuesday night.

“What it came down to is as we evaluated both teams and looked at how they rank, obviously we think highly of both teams,” Manuel said. “One’s at 11, one’s at 12. But what it really came down to is Alabama is 3-1 against current top 25 teams and Miami is 0-1. Alabama is 6-1 against teams above .500 and Miami’s 4-2. Both have had some losses that weren’t what they wanted out of those games. But in the last three games, Miami has lost twice.”

That recency bias favoring Alabama is something neither program can do much to change at this point. Neither Alabama nor Miami will play in a conference championship game this weekend.

Miami’s loss to Syracuse cost it that shot at the ACC title — and possibly a College Football Playoff berth.

“So for us, in evaluating their body of work, we felt that Alabama got the edge over Miami,” Manuel said.