Why wait until October 30 to find out who the top teams are for this year’s College Football Playoff? Title Run is here with your first CFP rankings of 2018:
Others receiving votes:
Clemson (5 pts)
The Process
Each of our six contributors ranked the top-four teams in the country based on resume, results, and the eye test. In other words, if you struggled to beat a quality opponent you get the nod over a team that cruises to victory over a directional FCS school. BUT if you absolutely dismantle a weaker opponent you also get credit for showing your dominance the way an elite team should.
Each first place vote was worth FOUR points, second place votes worth THREE points, third place votes worth TWO points, and fourth place votes worth ONE point. The teams were ranked according to the highest total.
The Explanation
1) Alabama
Best Wins: 45-23 vs Texas A &M; 62-7 vs Ole Miss
No need to explain here. Bama looks unbeatable with an average margin-of-victory of 40 points. They’ve won every game by at least 22 points and have already hung 60 on two different conference opponents. All that with a starting QB who has yet to throw a pass in the fourth quarter. While they’ve only beaten one ranked team, their dominance over what should be competent competition like Louisville and Ole Miss earns them the top spot.
2) Ohio State
Best Wins: 40-28 vs (15) TCU; 27-26 vs (9) Penn State
Ohio State has more higher profile wins than UGA and Notre Dame and has sound victories over the teams you’d expect them to kill. Dwayne Haskins is being discussed as the best pure passer Urban Meyer has EVER coached, and their offense appears to be one the elite units in college football.
3) Georgia
Best Wins: 41-17 vs (24) South Carolina
Georgia lacks the two top-15 wins of Ohio State and the utter dominance of Alabama, but they join Bama as the only other Power 5 school to win every game by double digits. They have yet to really be challenged despite looking very sluggish for much of their wins over Missouri and Tennessee. The Dawgs’ season will be defined by the upcoming four game stretch of ranked opponents (LSU, Kentucky, Florida, Auburn).
4) Notre Dame
Best Wins: 24-17 vs (14) Michigan; 38-17 vs (7) Stanford; 45-23 vs (23) Va Tech
That’s right, Notre Dame has the best resume on this list. The problem is that while the Irish have looked like an elite team since installing Ian Book as their starting quarterback, they still eked out one-score wins against Ball State (24-16) and Vandy (22-17). Michigan appears to be a quality win, but Stanford just suffered a second blowout loss to Utah and VA Tech lost to Old Dominion and played their back-up QB against Notre Dame.
All that is to say that while the Irish’s resume looks good on paper, it remains to be seen how “good” these early wins really are.
On the Outside Looking In
Clemson has two gritty, nail-biting, come-from-behind victories against quality opponents in Texas A&M and Syracuse. The problem is that they lack a dominating signature performance to put them on par with the four teams in front of them -- each of whom has a double-digit win over a ranked team. The Tigers only have one more game against a ranked team (No. 20 N.C. State) and are running out of chances to impress with several ACC powerhouses woefully underperforming this year.
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