On Tuesday, the College Football Playoff committee released its latest rankings—widely considered the most important of the season as they indicate how teams are valued heading into the conference championships, which could impact only a handful of programs.
The two games to watch are the SEC title matchup between No. 3 Georgia and No. 9 Alabama, and the Big 12 Championship between No. 4 Texas Tech and No. 11 BYU.
If Georgia or Texas Tech lose, they are likely to remain in the playoff picture. If BYU loses, they’ll fall out. The real controversy comes if Alabama loses—would the committee penalize them for losing an extra game, as happened with SMU in 2024, when they remained in the playoff despite a loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship?
Nonetheless, giving automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions limits the goal of getting the truly best 12 teams in the playoff. As of now, both No. 17 Virginia and No. 20 Tulane would claim two spots simply for winning their respective conferences. If either loses, it would only add to the chaos.
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Put simply, if you’re outside the top 10 heading into the Dec. 7 rankings reveal, nothing is guaranteed. The committee’s system still has major flaws, which continue to spark debate across the college football world each season.
Shortly after the rankings reveal, legendary coach and current “Big Noon Kickoff” analyst Urban Meyer made it known that he believes the NCAA should eliminate the CFP committee entirely and adopt a different method for evaluating teams.
“The committee’s got to go away. It’s got to go away,” Meyer said. “There’s 40, 50, 60 years of experience among us, and we still can’t agree on everything. I just can’t understand how you can penalize Texas for losing at Ohio State. If Bama loses [against Georgia], you cannot penalize them. That’s a reward. The season’s over unless you win. You cannot do that. I don’t understand. Like, if BYU beats Texas Tech, of course Texas Tech is in. A lot of things come across my mind—I’m just worried about the future of our game.”
Texas lost their season opener on the road to Ohio State, one of the toughest non-conference games any team could schedule.
The concern now is whether the CFP committee will let that loss count against them—and if so, what message does that send for the future? Teams may be hesitant to schedule challenging non-conference opponents if a single loss could later be used against them in the evaluation process.
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