The College Football Playoff committee released their latest rankings on Tuesday night, and it's rife with controversy as we head into championship week.
https://twitter.com/CFBPlayoff/status/803753011218501632
Let's start with Virginia Tech. They have re-entered the poll at #23 after their 52-10 drubbing of Virginia last Saturday. However, take a look at the teams around the Hokies in the poll and some questions start to arise.
- Why is Tennessee ahead of Virginia Tech after losing to South Carolina and Vanderbilt and ending their season 8-4?
- Why did Utah move up two spots to #20 after losing last week?
- Why did Florida, Auburn, and Louisville all only drop one or two spots after huge losses?
These are all great questions, but don't really matter in the long run. Except for Florida State being at #12 and Louisville at #13 (higher ranked team goes to the Orange Bowl if Clemson wins the ACC Championship game).
The big news from these rankings is that Ohio State is sitting at #2, Wisconsin at #6 and Penn State at #7. There is a very realistic possibility that with a Washington loss, both Michigan and Ohio State could make the playoffs without winning their conference championship or division. Add in a Clemson loss, and we could be staring at a playoff with three Big Ten teams. Yikes.
For the Hokies, this should only fuel the fire as they prepare for the Tigers on Saturday. Virginia Tech thrives in the underdog role, and I think they've been undervalued at #23 this week. We'll see how that goes on Saturday night.
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