Washington Huskies in the playoff . for now

As we wait for the playoff selection committee to release its rankings later Tuesday, there are so many questions.

When the guys who run college football – and by this we mean the commissioners of the Power Five conferences – sat down a few years back to hammer out how the College Football Playoff would work, there was a serious difference of opinion.

“There is a small separation between these two teams”, selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said of MI and Washington.

“Razor thin”, he said.

Despite the fact Penn State is coming off a 33-point win over a Michigan State team that nearly beat Ohio State two weeks ago, the Nittany Lions remained No. 7 in the latest rankings.

“The separation there from four to seven is not a wide margin, but specifically between Washington and MI, it’s razor thin”, Hocutt said.

“The selection committee recognizes the head-to-head win, but in this particular case, it hasn’t been the distinguishing point in our evaluation of those two teams”, he said.

“From the discussion, the debate, the discussion between Washington and MI is very small”. But the real fun comes on Sunday, when the conference title games are over and the playoff teams are named.

“I think we’re one of the top teams in the country”, Meyer said after Ohio State escaped with an improbable win over MI. But Michigan pretty clearly is one of the best teams in the nation, and if the world were fair it would be facing Ohio State again for the Big Ten title.

Ten of the 25 teams in last week’s rankings lost during the past weekend and nine of those teams were ranked No. 11-23. Not only did he point to the Wolverines’ performance, he listed U-M’s strength of schedule and its three top-10 wins as favorable metrics. Undefeated Alabama, however, could stay in the poll even with a loss. “It’s a small separation – I can’t emphasize that enough – between No. 4 and No. 5”. “I know this. The committee will look at all the information”.

“We’ve said there’s a lot to like about Washington over the course of this year”.

We know MI won’t have the conference title, but it will have head-to-head on both Wisconsin and Penn State and a better record against the Top 25. Would it keep Ohio State in the field at the exclusion of the Nittany Lions, who would own a head-to-head victory over the Buckeyes and the conference title? But “conference championships won” would be an official criteria the committee was to use to distinguish “among otherwise comparable teams”. There is however the possibility that the Playoff Committee will not be as punishing for a loss picked up by having to play an extra game, particularly against a team that is playoff bound. The problem is the Wolverines won’t have another opportunity to impress the committee because they won’t play until their bowl game. He also said precedent – what’s happened in previous CFP years – doesn’t matter. However, Urban Meyer’s team will not be playing in this weekend’s Big Ten title game.

“But if Washington loses to Colorado, that’s what the committee is going to be talking about: “most deserving” versus ‘the best, ‘” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said.

“I would come back to the core goal and mission of this selection committee, and that is to identify the four very best teams in college football”.

“We’ve analyzed, we’ve gone inside this data in detail and we’ve looked at teams side-by-side”, committee Chairman Kirby Hocutt told ESPN.