Nothing tends to create more debate and drama in sports than the weekly rankings of the College Football Playoff (CFP). But with the first rankings released for the 2025 season on Tuesday night, ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy found himself struggling to find a bone to pick.
As the initial CFP rankings were unveiled, Big Ten powerhouses Ohio State and Indiana led the way at #1 and #2 respectively. They were followed closely by Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, and Ole Miss from the SEC. BYU, Texas Tech, Notre Dame, Virginia, and Memphis rounded out the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Red River rivals Texas and Oklahoma found themselves on the outside looking in this week.
Notably, the CFP rankings closely mirrored the AP Poll rankings, with the lone exception being Oregon, which was ranked a few spots lower. This alignment left little room for the usual debate and heated discussions centered around hypotheticals, eye tests, team appearances, and conference superiority narratives.
“I’m like baffled right now,” McElroy admitted. “Because I really agree with the rankings. I don’t have a huge issue outside of maybe a team or two that might be slightly too high or too low. This ranking makes sense. This is the first time I feel like in an initial ranking where it’s like, I understand why they did that. That makes sense to me.”
He continued, “They’re putting premiums on how a team has looked and how consistent they have played. They’re penalizing teams that haven’t played anybody just yet or don’t have a great win, a la Oregon, who by the way looks great, but they haven’t played enough people yet to warrant a higher ranking. I just think they did a great job this week and I’m flabbergasted by it. Tip of the cap to the committee.”
The weekly College Football Playoff rankings show has often been a hot mess since its inception, typically bringing out the worst in college football fandom and media as tribalism goes to extremes. Even Kirk Herbstreit has washed his hands of the entire exercise after enduring the stress of analyzing it week after week.
But if this is what we get on a weekly basis in 2025, perhaps it will be a kinder, gentler season for the college football universe. LSU and Penn State may have better chances of playing for the national championship this year, but for now, it’s nice to dream.
https://awfulannouncing.com/college-football/greg-mcelroy-baffled-by-cfp-rankings-he-actually-agrees-with.html
