- 24 minutes ago
UCLA climbed to No. 4 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, securing a projected first-round bye as the highest-ranked team from the Big Ten. Meanwhile, Indiana dropped five spots to No. 9 during an idle week, and Texas fell behind the Bruins despite winning a conference road game by two touchdowns. The sudden movement raises serious questions about whether the selection committee follows a consistent standard or simply manufactures weekly drama. Derek Fisher, Cody Decker & Ben Stevens discuss!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00The second set of college football playoff rankings unveiled last night and we all went around this desk with committee
00:07member Derek Fisher and we gave out our shot for what we thought UCLA would be after checking in at
00:13number eight in the initial set of CFP rankings and where they would be at the end of night number
00:19two.
00:19We thought they might move up a spot, maybe at most two. UCLA vaults up four spots to number four
00:27in the CFP rankings, the highest ever college football playoff ranking for the UCLA Bruins.
00:34As you were watching the reveal between the two college basketball games in the Champions Classic, what were you first
00:41thinking, season ticket holder?
00:42Couldn't believe it. Legitimately couldn't believe it, but not for the reasons you think. I could believe it because I
00:46do think this is accurate and correct. That's why I couldn't believe it.
00:52I legitimately thought they were going to move up one spot. Seven, two, six. I have it right in front
00:57of me. Just going through it. Number one, Georgia.
01:00Number two, Utah undefeated. One of the two undefeated teams in the country. Number three, Alabama. Fine.
01:08Number four, the UCLA Bruins. Number five, I thought they were going to try to justify Notre Dame being ahead
01:15of them.
01:16I thought they were going to try to justify Texas being ahead of them. I for sure thought they were
01:21going to justify the University of Miami being ahead of them.
01:24All three of them directly behind the UCLA Bruins. And I think this is correct.
01:30I honestly thought this is what it should have been the first time, but I don't care.
01:35We got there. And you know what? I'm still going to say the same thing I said yesterday. I'm still
01:39with Coach Chesney.
01:40I saw the video that him and our athletic director posted yesterday. Doesn't matter. Keep winning. Go Bruins.
01:49Friday night against Illinois is going to be a goddamn banger.
01:54What did you think?
01:56I mean, yeah, I just saw it late last night.
02:00I didn't have a thought.
02:01The excitement is palpable.
02:02You didn't think?
02:03No, I didn't have a thought or like a reaction to.
02:06Really?
02:07No.
02:08I thought that would have surprised you to see UCLA move up by four spots.
02:13And not just where UCLA moved, where everybody else moved around them.
02:17The fact that the Bruins were still in front of Notre Dame.
02:20That UCLA now moved in front and leapfrogged Texas, who was a spot in front of them in the first
02:26set of college football playoff rankings.
02:28That Indiana, on a bye week, dropped five spots all the way down from number four to number nine.
02:36Yeah, that's fair.
02:37Which was great.
02:37You thought that was fair?
02:39I thought that was interesting.
02:40That was actually the one thing that kind of caught my eye.
02:41I thought I was like, oh, okay.
02:44That's unique.
02:45Especially going into a huge game this weekend against USC.
02:48Yeah, I mean, the only thought I had once I kind of absorbed a little bit of where some of
02:54this landed was, like we had talked about before, whether you think it's right or not, because of the head
03:06-to-head matchups that lied ahead after the first reveal, it was always going to play out and be fluid
03:12in this way.
03:15Like, there was no way around it, because some of the teams that, some of these matchups, the teams that
03:20are going to have to play against each other, somebody has to lose those matchups, which means those teams are
03:25going to drop, et cetera, et cetera.
03:27Indiana drops after a bye week, but with a win this weekend, probably moves back up.
03:33What other matchups, you know, are ahead that could present opportunities to move back up?
03:39You know, I don't know.
03:42But, yeah, I don't, yeah, I'm not necessarily, I guess, shocked, because I didn't have, it didn't have to be
03:50a certain way for me.
03:51Like, that, you can feel that way.
03:53Yeah, you know I do.
03:54But, yeah, I don't, all of this is just stuff that people that don't play the game actually think.
04:02This is just thought.
04:04This is not reality.
04:06Right.
04:06We get mad at it.
04:07The players don't get mad at it.
04:08But we will.
04:09Okay.
04:10Well, the realities of this is, I mean, this does matter because this does jockey for position, potential buys.
04:16Like, currently, UCLA went from having to play a probably pretty tough game to now they are currently sitting with
04:22a bye in the college football playoff.
04:24Yeah, but that's only if things remain as they are.
04:27Yeah, they have to keep winning, yes.
04:28Yeah, so that's what I'm saying.
04:30Like, you don't change anything based on that.
04:35Like, you're not thinking about having to buy a month from now already.
04:39You know what I mean?
04:40That's just not the thought process.
04:42And this is why I have the...
04:44Are you talking about for who, though?
04:45Like, are you talking about for the team, people, fans?
04:48Yeah, it's me, it's coach, and player.
04:51That's all I think about.
04:52Okay.
04:53I'm not thinking about what other people think about what people that are in it do.
04:57I'm saying none of this changes anything for the people involved in the program.
05:04And it shouldn't.
05:05But the narrative of these rankings does influence where they are eventually ranked,
05:10and if they have the opportunity to compete in the college football playoff,
05:14to host an opening round college football playoff game,
05:16or earn that additional week of rest and that opening round buy.
05:21My issue with the college football playoff committee has been and remains for 13 years
05:27and will, as we extend to 24 teams next year,
05:31that each and every week they just be making stuff up.
05:35That each and every week they contradict their own reasoning and rationale
05:40from simply the week prior, let alone the season before that or five years ago.
05:46The reason I thought UCLA would move up by maybe one spot,
05:49or as you pointed out at the end of yesterday's show, maybe not at all,
05:53is because they had Texas in front of UCLA already.
05:58And Texas goes on the road and beats Missouri,
06:01a Missouri team that I don't think, frankly, is very good and has no business
06:04being in the top 25 at this moment.
06:07But Texas handled its business, won by two touchdowns in a road conference game,
06:11and got leapfrogged by UCLA?
06:14The committee told us last week that the Bruins' first eight wins,
06:18being perfect in all of those games, wasn't all of that impressive as compared to
06:23multiple two-loss SEC teams.
06:25But then one week it's not that impressive, and the next week it is.
06:29They had Indiana ranked at four, Indiana has an idle weekend, and they dropped five spots?
06:35I agree.
06:35This is probably a little bit more representative of what I thought the rankings were going to be last week,
06:40and what I think they should be here and now in the second week of these college football
06:44playoff rankings, but that's what I think of it right now.
06:48That is not what the precedent set by the committee was simply a week ago.
06:53And every week they trot up the selection committee chairman,
06:56who has to try to explain all of this, and he puts his foot in his mouth time and again.
07:03So there is no standard, there is no protocol, there is no guidelines,
07:06and that makes it infuriating to have to deal with, and ultimately continue to deal with,
07:11as we get to the final rankings that will determine the actual college football playoff field.
07:16It's completely frustrating, because it is just that.
07:19It's like the rankings are changed every week due to vibes.
07:22For instance, I think UCLA should be four, but it's like you just said,
07:26they should have been four last week.
07:28Indiana going from four to nine makes no sense during a bye week.
07:33I'm sorry, there's just nothing about that that justifies a team that was firmly sitting in a bye spot
07:38and now dropping to the nine spot in literally no fashion of their own doing,
07:43or frankly, anybody else's doing.
07:46This is just, to me, it's like put a blindfold on, drop a pin, whatever it lands on,
07:51that's what they're doing, because again, it makes no sense that LSU's in 21.
07:55You already mentioned Missouri at 22.
07:57That makes no sense at all.
07:59But the thing that is really puzzling is Indiana dropping from four to nine on a bye week.
08:05They need, if there's one thing I need the college football committee to do,
08:10it's to make rules that are digestible, make sense,
08:13and that they actually follow when doing these rankings.
08:16Because it's very clear, they're just following vibes in the moment.
08:21Or was this also them just answering back because everyone agreed UCLA's ranking was absolutely BS last week?
08:32I don't think you were going to say something on behalf of the committee there.
08:35No, I mean, it's just like Indiana plays SC this weekend.
08:39Yeah.
08:40So if Indiana wins that game, they probably will move back up.
08:46You would think so, but we have no idea.
08:49Some of these other teams, whatever their matchups are, won't necessarily be against a top 20 CFP team.
08:56So even if they win, unless they win 52-7, which does kind of matter, right?
09:03Right, for sure.
09:04Like, then Indiana could slide back up because of a win against a top 20 CFP team.
09:10And you're not wrong with where this will go week to week.
09:13But that's why I have been a big proponent of have one final reveal.
09:17Have Selection Sunday after what we still have as Conference Championship Saturday be that,
09:22so that every week it is not changing and every week it is not infuriating in terms of what you
09:28tell us.
09:29Hunter Urechek, the committee chair yesterday, said that Notre Dame moved up in the way that they did
09:35when the committee themselves had the Irish at No. 11 last week because of how they played in the first
09:42half against Miami.
09:45Games are 60 minutes.
09:46The Canes came back.
09:48They were trailing by 21 midway through the third quarter, and they fought to make that a game in South
09:53Bend.
09:53And because the Hurricanes looked bad for 30 minutes, they dropped from 1 to 7.
09:59None of it makes sense.
10:00Again, UCLA deserves to be No. 4 in the country, if not even a peg higher than that.
10:06But based on where UCLA was last week, nobody anticipated the Bruins moving up by 4 spots.
10:12And that's the wild thing.
10:13So then every week, Fish, if Indiana beats USC, if the Trojans go into Burlington and beat the Hoosiers,
10:18we have no idea what that will actually mean for the ranking because there is no standard to follow.
10:26Yeah, I mean, is it possible that it's by design to get everybody to do what you guys like to
10:33do when this happens?
10:34And that's how the business stays alive?
10:36Don't say the quiet part out loud.
10:39By design might be, honestly, yes and no.
10:43I think there is an aspect of this where they can create the drama, absolutely.
10:46But to say that by design, I honestly, and I pardon the expression, we're giving these people way too much
10:53credit.
10:53Like, way too much credit.
10:55Okay, so then where does all the high come from if we're giving them too much credit?
11:00We're giving them too much credit if we think that they're doing this on purpose simply to create ratings,
11:05which it doesn't create ratings.
11:06The ratings are already there.
11:07It doesn't necessarily create the conversation either.
11:10The conversation's already there.
11:12The whole problem is what we've just been saying for the last 10 minutes.
11:15The problem is they don't have a system.
11:17It's just made-up nonsense.
11:20And it's a problem because it actually affects money, TV ratings, and that's where the thing's going to...
11:25It affects people's money.
11:26It affects universities' money.
11:28It affects players' money.
11:29All because there's a champagne room of, like, 12 idiots who are just making up nonsense as they go along.
11:37Because you have a ranking next to your name, whether you agree with it or not.
11:40Whether you think it matters ultimately here on Wednesday, November 11th,
11:44or the only one that will matter is the Sunday following conference championship weekend,
11:49you have a ranking.
11:50So teams and programs and fan bases believe they are set for a certain spot.
11:55And then ultimately, if the committee can just decide whatever the heck they want when it comes down to it,
12:00you have a crazy system that leads to this frustration.
12:04And think about it with donors.
12:05And think about it with people who have big pockets.
12:08It's, okay, my team is ranked one in the nation and I happen to be, I have, I have 600
12:12million dollars.
12:13Well, I'm going to donate this money over to here because my team's number one in the nation.
12:16My team's number 25 in the nation.
12:18There's a chance I might not donate that same amount of money.
12:20Or maybe it'll actually inspire me to do it.
12:22It just, this affects money in every single semblance of the phrase.