We got a look at the third release of the College Football Playoff Rankings of the 2023 season, and this time Ohio State tumbled a spot from the top perch down to No. 2 behind the Georgia Bulldogs.
It was thought to be trending that way with almost everyone in the media pointing towards UGA’s win over two top ten type opponents the last two weeks, and that’s exactly what happened. Behind the Buckeyes in the second slot was Michigan (3), followed by Florida State (4), Washington (5), Oregon (6), Texas (7), Alabama (8), Missouri (9), and Louisville (10) rounding out the top ten.
One of the great things (we think) about these rankings is that the committee is held accountable with a press teleconference afterwards to discuss all the conversations and logic that went into ranking teams where we saw. In other words, they do ask how the sausage was made, and we get to see the ugly guts.
We’re a part of those conversations and like to bring you everything Executive Director Bill Hancock and Committee Chair Boo Corrigan say about Ohio State when questioned.
Here’s how the conversation about the Buckeyes went after Week 11 of the 2023 college football season from the committee.
Introduction
What the College Football Playoff committee said
BRETT DANIELS: I’d like to welcome everyone to the third College Football Playoff Selection Committee teleconference for the 2023 season. Once again joining us tonight will be Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair. At this time I’d like to turn it over to Boo for a brief opening comment.
BOO CORRIGAN: Good evening. We have concluded our third week of work as a Selection Committee, and as you know the committee has ranked Georgia 1, Ohio State 2, Michigan 3 and Florida State 4.
Before I take your questions, I want to let the group know that Rod West was not able to join us this week. Once again, this had no impact on the work of the Selection Committee. As you know, it’s not the first time a member has missed a meeting, nor will it be the last.
I’m sure you have questions about this week’s rankings, and I’m happy to take them.
On what is separating Ohio State (No. 2) and Michigan (No. 3) in the rankings
What the College Football Playoff committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, again, looking at Ohio State, the wins over Penn State that they now share with Michigan, Ohio State has got the win over Notre Dame, 5-0 against teams with winning records, top 5 defense. Their offense, to your point, put up 38 last week, and Michigan continues to come along and continues to be dominant in the games that they’ve played.
As go through it each week, we continue to look at everything, and after week 11 we ended up with Ohio State at 2 and Michigan at 3.
On how hard it was to flip Georgia over Ohio State this week
What the College Football Playoff committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we go in there every week and repeat it again with a clean sheet. You look at the Missouri win, Missouri’s win in turn over Tennessee and the Mississippi win, and looking at the totality of the schedule as we go through this, and 5-0 against teams that are .500 and better, the win over Florida, the win over Kentucky, and Penn State continues to be a really good team, particularly with their defense and their offense coming along and having dynamic players on the offensive side of the ball like Marvin Harrison, Jr.
Again, active strong debate in the room as we’re going through this, but we as a group came up with Georgia 1 and Ohio State 2.
On how one week could have changed the perception of Ohio State's offense
What the College Football Playoff committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, good question. As we’re looking at it, it’s them, but it’s also what the teams around them do. So we’re trying to take everything — you’re seeing improvement from a lot of the teams that we’re talking about in how they’re playing. In some cases players coming back from injury and just making sure that we’re trying to read the whole piece of what’s going on, and Ohio State has been hit by the injury bug, as well, and seeing them have their guys back on the field continues to impress the committee. You can’t get much closer than those two.
On how much conversation was had surrounding Georgia moving ahead of Ohio State
What the College Football Playoff committee said
BOO CORRIGAN: A lot of time. We talked about it early, we talked about it in the middle, we talked about it at the end and made sure that as we go through this and the voting process that there’s healthy, strong debates, conversations around each one of the teams, and then in comparison to the other teams in making sure that we’re tracking where the games are and who’s in, who’s playing again, who’s out, all of those things.
But this is a locked-in group. We go into the room and we lock in, and we eat something, and then we’ll lock in again, and then we’ll sleep and we’ll lock in again.
It’s a constant focus of everyone in the room to really be prideful about what we’re doing and understanding what our mission is.
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