Here’s the CBS and Athlon preseason rankings for all teams. Relevant ranks for us
CBS:
1 Georgia
4 Texas
6 Ole Miss
15 Tennessee
26 Louisville
32 Kentucky
37 Auburn
38 Florida
44 South Carolina
Athlon:
1 Georgia
4 Texas
5 Ole Miss
13 Tennessee
24 Louisville
32 Auburn
35 Florida
38 Kentucky
40 South Carolina
Also I had always assumed that with the new CFP setup (5 auto-bids), we would need to finish the season ranked 11th to make the playoff, since the #12 seed would probably be a lower ranked Liberty or Memphis type team that takes the last auto-bid and bounces whoever is ranked 12th.
But looking at these rankings, it is distinctly possible that the ACC and new Big 12 champion could also hop in and bounce two other borderline teams. If either of these rankings were the CFP committee's final rankings, all teams ranked 3-9 (teams from the SEC, B1G, and ND) would be the at-larges, while lower ranked FSU and Utah bump out 10th/11th ranked teams.
Stacking the SEC and B1G hurts us once again. We probably will never make the current set-up at 9-3...we'd need 10-2 or an expansion to 16 teams to make it.
CBS:
1 Georgia
4 Texas
6 Ole Miss
15 Tennessee
26 Louisville
32 Kentucky
37 Auburn
38 Florida
44 South Carolina
Athlon:
1 Georgia
4 Texas
5 Ole Miss
13 Tennessee
24 Louisville
32 Auburn
35 Florida
38 Kentucky
40 South Carolina
Also I had always assumed that with the new CFP setup (5 auto-bids), we would need to finish the season ranked 11th to make the playoff, since the #12 seed would probably be a lower ranked Liberty or Memphis type team that takes the last auto-bid and bounces whoever is ranked 12th.
But looking at these rankings, it is distinctly possible that the ACC and new Big 12 champion could also hop in and bounce two other borderline teams. If either of these rankings were the CFP committee's final rankings, all teams ranked 3-9 (teams from the SEC, B1G, and ND) would be the at-larges, while lower ranked FSU and Utah bump out 10th/11th ranked teams.
Stacking the SEC and B1G hurts us once again. We probably will never make the current set-up at 9-3...we'd need 10-2 or an expansion to 16 teams to make it.
