How the committee set first College Football Playoff rankings of 2022: Full results

Could a perfect TCU team be left out of the Playoff?

The committee's decision to rank Alabama ahead of the 8-0 Horned Frogs could have a lasting impact.

Should Lane Kiffin be #Auburn's top target?

As Tulane football players celebrated in the locker room after a win against Memphis, head coach Willie Fritz told them to enjoy their night, but he didn’t want to see them at The Boot, a bar near campus.

That’s because, the 62-year-old coach said, he’d be there himself. The players roared and Fritz jumped onto the players to crowd surf.

Fritz didn’t actually go to The Boot that night. It was a sarcastic comment. The Fritz family went to a different restaurant, one typically sparsely crowded, to enjoy their night. But while the coach was there, 20 players and parents walked in.

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When Ari took part in the mock College Football Playoff selection exercise earlier this season, he asked CFP executive director Bill Hancock if committee members ever looked at hypothetical point spreads to help determine whether one team should be ranked higher than another.

Hancock (jokingly) called Ari a degenerate.

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The 8-0 TCU Horned Frogs entered the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2022 season at No. 7 on Tuesday evening. The team was slotted behind a top three of Tennessee, Ohio State and Georgia, as well as Clemson, Michigan and one-loss Alabama.

It was a predictable outcome for a Playoff committee that, despite annually insisting it goes to great lengths and efforts to weigh and parse these decisions, usually tends to deliver a rather formulaic and rudimentary set of rankings each week. It’s like listening to a snobby barista describe the intricate roasting process for a small-batch, sustainably sourced, single-origin medium roast and then slide you a nice, steaming cup of Folgers.

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(Photo: Matthew Pearce-Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Before we parse the words of its chairman and read between the lines of its initial Top 25 rankings, it’s always important to remember why the College Football Playoff has a 13-human selection committee.

The sport’s power brokers did not want the teams competing for a national championship to be chosen by a mathematical formula. They wanted subjectivity, a course correction from the BCS era. They wanted the debate between a team that was “unequivocally” one of the four best teams in the country and a team whose resume made it “deserving” of inclusion.

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Jim Harbaugh stepped in front of the Michigan team on Tuesday and shared a 4 a.m. epiphany.

The Wolverines spent the past few days dealing with the fallout from Saturday’s incident in the Michigan Stadium tunnel, which left two Michigan players injured and eight Michigan State players suspended. As center Olu Oluwatimi recalled it, Harbaugh told the team he was awake in the wee hours of the morning and came to the realization that it was time to move on, to focus on being “victors” and not “victims.”

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Being No. 1 in the College Football Playoff committee’s initial Top 25 technically doesn’t mean anything. Players and coaches won’t be getting fitted for rings.

Neyland Stadium, standing taller than it has in decades on the banks of the Tennessee River, won’t get any new signage after ESPN revealed the Vols atop the CFP committee’s first ranking Tuesday.

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(Photo: Donald Page-Getty Images)

While not officially finalized, the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is expected to debut with the 2024 season. Each week for the remainder of the season, The Athletic will test drive the proposed format using the CFP committee’s latest Top 25 rankings — and predict how it will play out.

Here’s how the bracket would be seeded and the site locations determined using the committee’s November 1 rankings. Note: The Orange and Cotton Bowls were previously scheduled to host the 2024-25 semifinals and Atlanta the national championship game.

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(Photo: Randy Sartin-USA Today)

There was a lot of discussion on the committee between 1, 2, and 3 but chair Boo Corrigan is keeping his explanation simple and concise: Tennessee is No. 1 because of its wins over Alabama and LSU.

Did the committee get it right?

Tennessee is No. 1 but who are the rest of the top 25?

CFP committee chairman Boo Corrigan says the disparity was "not that great" between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 5 Michigan. Describes Michigan as more "workmanlike" and says the nonconference schedule was a factor.

One interesting component is how the Big Ten was devalued slightly by the College Football Playoff selection committee when compared with the AP rankings. Illinois was down two spots to No. 16, while both No. 15 Penn State and No. 5 Michigan were down one spot apiece. Only No. 2 Ohio State stayed in the same spot by both the CFP and the AP.

I think we can all agree the important lesson tonight is Tulane would be the favorite to make the 12-team Playoff if we had one this season. The Green Wave and UCF are the only two Group of Five reps in this initial top 25.