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The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season will be released Tuesday night, and I'm sure everybody will agree with them and think they're perfect. There certainly won't be any crying about how some teams are ranked too high because "they haven't played anybody," or that some teams are getting far too much credit for games they lost. Honestly, my favorite part of the rankings reveal every week is when the committee chairman has to answer a bunch of questions about why teams are ranked where they are, and is forced to give a bunch of answers that will inevitably conflict with other answers they've already given. It's a no-win situation because the rankings aren't an exact science, and never will be. It's a sport that now features 136 teams playing at the same level, and a playoff that will include only 12 of them, with five of those 12 spots guaranteed to conference champions. And everybody is playing a different schedule that will vary wildly based on what conference they call home now, because of how valuable a television brand they are. It's a wonderful system! College Football Playoff Rankings projection: Alabama ahead of Big Ten, SEC unbeatens as initial top 25 looms Brad Crawford But while your brain is about to become flooded by CFP rankings and what they mean, remember these rankings are not meant to be the same as those, or either of the major national polls. Like those rankings, these are imperfect. If I knew how to create a perfect power rating for college football, the last thing I would be doing is sharing it publicly. I'd be using it to make enough money to finance my life of golfing around the world. The best way to view these rankings, in relation to the playoff, is that this would be what the top 12 would look like if the committee's only goal was to produce a tournament that would have the smallest spreads possible, and viewed regular-season games as nothing more than a device to predict future results. It'd be a horrible way to determine the best team in any given season, but an incredible television event. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what the College Football Playoff is. Odds below via FanDuel Sportsbook.
