Upon the release of the committee’s penultimate rankings on Tuesday, the path to a third consecutive trip to the CFP for No. 13 Texas is, for all intents and purposes, a dead end. To get into the 12-team field, the Longhorns need Texas Tech to win the Big 12, Georgia to notch a landslide revenge victory over Alabama in the SEC title game and then hope the committee values the body of work Texas has put together throughout one of the toughest 12-game schedules any Power Four team had to navigate (LSU is the only bowl-eligible team ranked above the Longhorns in ESPN’s strength of schedule metric, which says Steve Sarkisian’s team played the eighth-toughest schedule in the country).
That’s unlikely to happen because the committee, based on what committee chair Hunter Yurachek said on Tuesday’s post-reveal conference call with reporters, believes Texas’ 29-21 road loss to Florida on Oct. 4 is too big a blemish to overlook.
“You’re spot on,” the Arkansas athletic director said when he was asked if the loss to the Gators is “the thing hurting Texas the most.”
“The committee has a great deal of respect for Texas and they've played an incredible schedule,” he added. “They've got four teams they played in our top 10. They beat OU on a neutral field. They just beat Texas A&M at home this past weekend. They lost to No. 1, Ohio State, and lost to No. 3, Georgia.
“But one key stat this week in the teams ranked in our top 15, there's 17 total losses for those teams. Sixteen of those losses came against teams that are currently ranked or have been ranked in our top 25 this year. The only loss to an unranked team was Texas' loss to Florida at Florida, and really Florida dominated that game — held Texas to 50 yards rushing, two interceptions. So, it's not that Texas played Ohio State. It is Texas' loss to Florida that's holding them back now.”
We don’t need to read the tea leaves when the committee is shoving them down our throats. When it comes to Texas, the committee has decided that an objectively bad loss supercedes three wins over teams currently ranked in the committee’s top 15.
That would be understandable had Yurachek’s words and the committee's actions done anything other than validate Feldman’s rant. The committee ranks teams as it wants, then works backward to make it make sense.
How is Texas dinged for the Florida loss, but Alabama’s two-touchdown loss to a Florida State team that finished 5-7 after getting blown out by the Gators last Saturday doesn’t matter?
Head-to-head results appear to matter for Oklahoma and Alabama (No. 8 and No. 9, respectively) and Texas and Vanderbilt (the Longhorns passed the 10-2 Commodores in the rankings). That's the case for No. 12 Miami, which opened the season with a win over No. 10 Notre Dame.
Two weeks ago, Yuracheck said Oregon was still getting credit for a road win over Penn State. The same appears to apply to Oklahoma's road win over Tennessee and road wins over Missouri for Alabama and Texas A&M, the Aggies going into Baton Rouge and manhandling LSU and the Crimson Tide's Iron Bowl win over Auburn.
Still, Yuracheck said on Tuesday that Vanderbilt lacks a signature win because LSU, Missouri and Tennessee aren’t currently ranked by the committee, even though Josh Heupel’s team fell out of the rankings after the Commodores’ 45-24 rout of the Volunteers in Neyland Stadium.
The CFP selection process isn’t broken. It would’ve needed to be a well-oiled machine first, which was never the case. And although no system will ever be perfect, a transparent process that leaves more questions than answers isn't working.
Bill Hancock was the executive director of the CFP from its inception through last season, when he helped Rich Clark transition into the role. In 2023, when a late-season injury to quarterback Jordan Travis put Florida State’s CFP hopes in doubt, Hancock clarified the selection committee’s criteria for setting the then-four-team field.
“It is ‘best,’” Hancock said. “‘Most deserving’ is not anything in the committee's lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that's what they do. Just keep that word in mind, ‘best’ teams.”
Therein lies the problem.
Three wins over Associated Press top-five opponents and nine wins against one of the toughest schedules in the country should be a strong enough résumé for the Longhorns to be considered one of the seven best at-large teams. The committee clinging to the Florida loss to justify why Texas should be on the outside looking in is a prime example of how the selection process doesn't end with a bracket of the best teams.
Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when Miami’s head-to-head win over Notre Dame, as of now, doesn’t matter.
Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when Texas and Vanderbilt, both of whom went 6-2 in the toughest conference in the country, are likely headed to meaningless bowl games. At the same time, Sun Belt favorite James Madison and the winner of the AAC title game between North Texas and Tulane could be among the 12 teams left standing for a chance to win the national championship. Everyone loves the Cinderella story, but how (aside from the money that would go to the AAC and Sun Belt, respectively) is college football better for Group of Five teams getting sacrificed to a legit title contender from the Power Four?
Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when the Longhorns, who played a tougher schedule than any of the other current CFP candidates, appear to be disqualified from consideration solely based on accruing three losses.
Until the goalposts stop moving or the moment comes when the Big Ten and the SEC decide, by force, to dictate the terms of the CFP to the rest of college football (like it or not, it’s coming), we won’t get a field of the best teams deciding a national champion. We'll get whatever the committee decides it wants, criteria or guidelines be dammed.
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