The first college football playoff ranking came out this week and it’s a big joke. No hyperbole!

Here’s what the committee came up with:

  1. Georgia (8-0)
  2. Alabama (7-1)
  3. Michigan State (8-0)
  4. Oregon (7-1)
  5. Ohio State (7-1)
  6. Cincinnati (8-0)
  7. Michigan (7-1)
  8. Oklahoma (9-0)
  9. Wake Forest (8-0)
  10. Notre Dame (7-1)

There’s a lot that’s wrong with this, so let’s go in order:

1) Cincinnati got dicked. They are 8-0 with a road win against Notre Dame, who round out the top 10. They beat a Big 10 team, Indiana, on the road by two touchdowns. They’ve been a multi-score winner against every team on their schedule outside of a seven-point win over Navy, and anybody who has actually watched the Bearcats this year knows they are a legit team with a legit QB, defense, and head coach. If an 8-0 Group of Five team with that schedule can’t break into the playoff, then nobody can.

2) Georgia obviously belongs at #1 overall. They are running through the SEC with little resistance and will get Bama in the conference title game if the Crimson Tide run the table. The real complication will happen if Georgia loses in that game and you have two 12-1 SEC teams worthy of the playoff. Alabama has a loss to an unranked TAMU team and their best non-conference win is 4-4 Miami. UGA beat Clemson in the season opener.

3) Ohio State might knock Michigan State out of the playoff, which means that the Buckeyes would likely just take their spot. But their lone loss is to Oregon, so you can’t move them above the Ducks, right? As a result, OSU’s best non-conference win is Tulsa.

4) Oregon lost to a 3-5 Stanford team and doesn’t have a ranked opponent left on their schedule. The Pac-12 stinks and they are benefiting tremendously from that OSU win.

5) Oklahoma: They are 9-0, yes, but didn’t look very good RE: the eye test early on, and they don’t have a marquee win on their schedule. However, they’ve been much better since making a QB change and if they run the table they’ll have wins over a ranked Baylor, ranked Okie State, and whomever they get in the Big 12 title game.

6) Wake Forest hasn’t beaten anybody yet. They had a weak OOC schedule but still have Clemson and a ranked NC State and could possibly play themselves higher if teams above them slip up. They’re likely going to be left out though.

What we’re seeing here is clear preference for the big teams from big conferences that have been here before. The Cincinnati snub is ludicrous. The Oregon and Ohio State rankings are too high.

I’m not totally into the idea of expanding the playoff, but if we did, we’d remedy some of this ridiculousness, and the current setup would look like this, courtesy of @CFBPlayoffEdits on Twitter:

The bottom line is that there seems to be no path to the playoff for Group of Five teams. Cincinnati is undefeated with two non conference road wins, one against a Power Five team and the other against Independent Notre Dame. There is literally nothing more that they can do before they eventually join the Big 12 as one of the Texas and Oklahoma replacements.

All of this sucks the life and energy out of the playoff. What’s the point if teams like Cincy can’t get in? Outrage!