The College Football Playoff – some people love it, some people hate it, some people would like to see it expanded to eight teams and some people don’t care as long as their favorite team is in it. Whatever your stance on the playoff, if you’re a college football fan or a curious sports fan in general, you’ll probably be tuning into ESPN when the first College Football Playoff Rankings are unveiled.
Each year since 2014 a committee of 13 people has ranked the top 25 teams in college football and ultimately placed four teams in the playoff. The rankings are unveiled on the first Tuesday after week eight and updated each week until the end of the season. This year the first College Football Playoff rankings will be unveiled on Tuesday, October 30th.
How much weight should we put into the first rankings?
First Rankings: Top 2️⃣5️⃣ pic.twitter.com/2nefOfDhyV
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) October 31, 2017
While the initial rankings are obviously important, nothing is set in stone as there is plenty of competitive football to be played. When the first playoff rankings were unveiled in 2017 the committee had Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame and Clemson as the top four teams.
As you know Georgia and Alabama played in the national title game and Clemson made the playoff, but when all was said and done Notre Dame ended up being ranked 14th. While three of the four teams did end up making the playoff, analysts and sports fans all over debated what the playoff field would look like up until the final rankings were announced.
Things you have to keep in mind when digesting the first rankings:
1. A lot can happen between October 30th and the end of the season.
2. The committee is not perfect so you can expect members of various fan bases to be displeased.
3. At least one coach whose team was left out will call for expansion.
Jim Harbaugh wants an expanded playoff. "Let's go to 8 and eventually get to 16."
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) July 23, 2018
So there you have it, the first College Football Playoff rankings will be unveiled on the night before Halloween. You can watch live on ESPN or circle back here for more analysis.
