CFP Poll: Tide opens as top team

Devonta Smith and the Alabama Crimson Tide open the College Football Playoff season as the No. 1 team for the third time since the poll began. (Unv. Alabama Media Relations)

STAFF REPORT

The first College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday evening with a familiar name at the top.

Alabama is atop the CFP rankings for the 19th time in the 38 rankings released beginning in 2014. The Crimson Tide has been ranked in the top five each year and have been ranked No. 1 at least one week in five of the seven years the College Football Playoff has existed. 

“They’re 7-0 and (impressive in) every area -- offense, defense, special teams,” said Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, the CFP selection committee chairman in 2020. “I think they've won all their games by at least 15 points and I think one of the things that was maybe the most impressive is beating Texas A&M, ranked No. 5, and Georgia, ranked No. 9. That's tough to do. They’re averaging almost 50 points a game now. There were just so many things about Alabama that led the committee to put them in that No. 1 spot.”

Behind Alabama is Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State in the top four, followed by Texas A&M and Florida. Auburn is ranked 22nd.

Good news and bad news for Bama. Good news - all six teams that opened as the No. 1 team eventually made the playoffs.

The bad - no team that started the poll “season” No. 1 has finished as the national champion. Last year, Ohio State opened on top and didn’t get out of the semifinals.

The College Football Playoff selection committee faces a difficult task of trying to compare teams from different parts of the country that are playing conference-only schedules as well as those that are playing abbreviated schedules because of COVID restrictions. 

“The committee came into this year knowing it was going to be different, knowing that as we were talking the last two days we were comparing teams that had played three games to teams who had played as many as nine,” Barta said. “Certainly that challenge, we knew it coming in, but everybody embraced it and I think that really made (the discussions and selection) flow really nicely.”

Notre Dame is ranked second on the strength of beating Clemson in the regular season, but Barta said the committee was impressed by the Fighting Irish’s defense as well.

“To Notre Dame's credit, they're 8-0 and they really have improved on both sides of the ball each week,” Barta said. “I look at (quarterback) Ian Book, who now compared to the beginning of the year, as the

season goes on, he just looks more and more comfortable with every passing game. The other thing Notre Dame has done is played some very tough defense. They've held five of their opponents to

fewer than 14 points. Notre Dame came in squarely at No. 2, again, partly because they just have the impressive win over Clemson, but also they're just improving with each week that goes by.”

Clemson lost the game at South Bend in overtime despite playing without starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who had been quarantined as a safety precaution.

“One of the things the committee noted right away before we talked about the Notre Dame loss is just the domination in the wins that they had and the consistency level of play week in and week out,” Barta said, “the quality win over Miami earlier in the season and then we talked about that loss to Notre Dame. It was a heck of a football game for sure.

“But we do note when a player or some key players are not available for a game, and in that case it was well noted that Trevor Lawrence wasn't able to play, and I think two or three defensive starters were also out for that game.”

Ohio State, despite its impressive offensive displays against overmatched competition, was fourth after fighting off a late rally by Indiana last week. 

“First of all, Ohio State has an incredibly dynamic offense led by Justin Fields and so many weapons,” Barta said. “I think they're scoring around 45 points a game. So it's clear to the committee that Ohio State is a very good football team.

“But as you look at the rest of their schedule, they ended up with three of their wins -- the other three wins other than Indiana, and Indiana is certainly ranked high, 12th in the country -- but the other three teams they've played have a combined record of 2-12. That certainly factored in. It was one factor in where Ohio State ended up.”