Cheat Sheet for a College Football Playoff Committee who did not do their Homework

The College Football Playoff Committee released their third rankings on Tuesday and inexplicably made only one change among the top 8 - their first alteration in three polls - of Georgia leapfrogging Ohio State for No. 1 (as if there is a big advantage whether a team is 1 or 2).

Since the CFPC cannot be bothered to actually watch games and make informed decisions, we at RBR have decided to give them a little help.

RUNDOWN

* Currently ranked by the CFP.

ANALYSIS

1. Georgia - The Bulldogs’ trip to Auburn in Week 5 was their first road trip - a game they won by seven on a late UGA touchdown. Their other road games have been at possibly the worst Power-5 team, Vandy, and neutral site Jacksonville against Florida. Although closer to the UF campus, the game had way more Georgia fans than those of the Gators. So far, UGA has not played an out of conference Power-5 team with only 5-5 Georgia Tech remaining. The Bulldogs have yet to play in a hostile environment. A trip to Tennessee is on tap for Saturday.
2. Ohio State - The Buckeye won at Notre Dame in September. At the time, it seemed like a big deal. Fast forward two months and it is not looking so great. The Irish in turn have not beaten any ranked teams, while going 4-3 against P5 teams. The Buckeyes defeated Penn State at home by the sad score of 20-12. Beyond those two games, Maryland and Rutgers are the only FBS opponents with winning records (both 6-4) that OSU has topped this season.
3. Michigan - The Wolverines have a shamelessly easy schedule. Their 24-15 W over at Penn State is the only win worth mentioning. Convince me that the top half of the SEC teams could not have run the table on this slate: vs ECU, vs UNLV, vs BGSU, vs RUTG, @NEB, @MINN, vs IND, @MichSt, vs PUR.
4. Florida State - The Seminoles have been hanging their hat on that opening weekend win over LSU in Orlando all season long. It is a pretty good bet that a neutral site rematch played this weekend would go much different. FSU have not played another currently ranked team since then. What does it say about Florida State and the ACC that the ‘Noles’ best win came against the team that is in third place in the SEC West? Boston College lost to FSU by a field goal in Week 3. Down-year Clemson only fell short by only a touchdown. And some referee shenanigans and injured Hurricanes QB saved them from tripping up to Miami last weekend.
5. Washington - When looking at resumes, the CFPC must have noted that the Huskies beat Oregon at home by three and stopped investigating. Had they looked a little closer, they would have realized that a big reason for the win was because of overly aggressive playcalling by a young coach plus a missed 43 yard field goal at the buzzer. In the seven point home win over Utah, UW was going against a reserve quarterback with the nation’s 81st ranked QBR and a linebacker converted to running back. A touchdown win at Arizona - who is mysteriously shooting up the rankings - is the next best win. The Huskies also beat a circling the drain Southern Cal but everyone is doing that these days. Of their other six wins, none of those foes have winning records at this point in the season.
6. Oregon - The Ducks one blemish is the above-mentioned Washington game. They too beat Utah and (now unranked) Southern Cal under similar circumstances. The other seven wins came against 5-5 Texas Tech and six teams with losing records. In short, OU has beaten one quality opponent, Utah, of whom it is a miracle that they are 7-3.
7. Texas - The Longhorns’ whole reputation is based off their win over Crimson Tide. We have heard many media members admitting this, calling it the “best win of the year”. If that was true, shouldn’t Texas and Alabama be ranked higher than Oregon at the very least? Of course as we all know, that was a much different Alabama team than we see now. The ‘Horns were cruising along quite nicely against some meh teams and then took a home win over Kansas if that moves your needle. Then things started to get a little rocky. A 4-point defeat to Oklahoma in Dallas was followed by a sloppy touchdown win against Houston. With Quinn Ewers out, UT thumped a bad BYU team but had to go to overtime to top K-State by a field goal. With Ewers back in the starting role, UT struggled to put 4-6 TCU away winning by three last weekend.
8. Alabama - The Crimson Tide’s loss to Texas came in Week 2 before the team knew who they were. Week 3 against USF was a mess but who is going to believe that this team as they are right now would repeat such an effort would they play today? Bama won road games at bowl eligible Kentucky and Texas A&M. The Tide had some struggles against TAMU and Arkansas but other than than they have been rolling since mid-September, including three two-touchdown victories over currently ranked teams.
9. Missouri - Nothing to see here.
10. Louisville -See #9.

OTHER NOTES:

Does it feel like the rankings below 8 are being swayed by who the top teams already beat?

• A skyrocketing Mizzou is a smidge suspicious. It seems someone is trying to prop up the SEC East a bit. The Tigers moved up five places after routing Tennessee who was playing in quit mode in a game played in Columbia.
• Arizona is shooting up the charts. They have a nice little 4-game win streak going but all they really did was expose these PAC-12 imposters Wazzu, Oregon State, UCLA, Colorado - all of whom were AP ranked at some point this season. Only OSU with a REALLY weak schedule thus far remains ranked. The Beavers (8-2) finish with Washington and @Oregon.
• If the Committee is going to give Texas and FSU credit for early season wins, then we might as well pay homage to Mississippi State who defeated #17 Arizona. After LSU, the Wildcats are the highest ranked 3-loss team. But no penalty for that Week 2 loss to 4-6 MSU, huh?