Determining the difference between one-loss teams can be tricky.
But according to College Football Playoff chairman Ward Manuel, Georgia’s inconsistencies over its first eight games is why the No. 3 Bulldogs found themselves one spot behind No. 2 Ohio State in the initial CFP rankings.
“Well, both are solid teams, as you know. Ohio State's one loss on the road was against the No. 1 team, and they lost by one. They had an impressive win this past weekend at Penn State, and they have been very consistent. Top-5 defense. They have had changes on the offensive line but still performed, as you know, and Will Howard and Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, those three have really moved the offense,” said Manuel, the athletic director at Michigan. “Georgia, very good team, a great win against Texas, a win over Clemson. But it was the consistency in terms of their offense. They've had some inconsistencies there, but they have a great defense, and they're allowing only 17 points per game. It was a close analysis, but in the end, we just felt that Ohio State was a more consistent performer at this point in time, and their loss to the No. 1 - their only loss is to No. 1 Oregon, and that's how the committee came out with the decision.”
Ultimately, the fact the Buckeyes are ranked ahead of Georgia in the CFP rankings may not matter at all as far as the 12-team playoffs is concerned.
With Oregon now a member of the Big Ten, the Ducks would receive the bye as a conference champion. Georgia – should it win the SEC Championship – would also receive a bye, regardless of if the Buckeyes remain ahead of the Bulldogs in the CFP rankings.
Confusing? It can be.
If Georgia does not win the SEC Championship, but still qualifies for the 12-team playoffs, then the Bulldogs would either travel or host a first-round game.
Ward made another point during an interview session with reporters following Tuesday night’s announcements on ESPN.
Contrary to popular belief, conference strength is not being factored into the decisions that are being made.
“We don't factor in conference strength. We look at each game individually, and that's what the commissioners do. They put that work in to watch those games and evaluate them on their own. When I said that all wins and losses aren't created equally, what I meant was I mean sometimes,” said Manuel. “Take the Ohio State loss to Oregon. It was one point on the road. That was an impressive game, and their performance was very strong against the No. 1 team in our ranking, as compared to a loss by Georgia to Alabama. It was on the road, but it didn't have the same, I'd say, impressiveness that the Ohio State loss did because Alabama is ranked 11 in our poll.”
Even though both were losses, they were not the same in the eyes of the committee.
“Now, both losses are still … it says something about the team, but they're just not the same, and the committee saw it that way,” Manuel said. “There's a lot of different examples throughout where some wins are better than others and some losses are also better or worse than others. The committee really does evaluate each game on its merit and not looking at irrespective of the conference that they're in.”
Manuel said evaluations go even deeper than that.
The committee also looks at injuries, what players are missing, and how teams responds when not at 100 percent.
“We notice when linemen move around when people are not in games that have played in games before. To us, and we have two NFL and college Hall-of-Famers on the offensive line who also are on the committee and recognize and discuss the play in the line - I'm a former defensive end - so you tend to notice those things,” Manuel said. “It was impressive with the movement that Ohio State really moved the ball against Penn State, protected well against their rush. It did factor into it as it relates to how we saw Ohio State and their performance against Penn State last weekend.”
