New College Football Playoff Poll Proves Selection Committee Is Just Making It Up As It Goes Along

They start again.

When the College Football Playoff Committee’s first poll was released last week, it was immediately met with scorn, derision, frustration and even anger from many fans and analysts who questioned how the rankings were determined.

Commission Chairman Hunter Yurachek’s lapses in logic, obvious errors and often inexplicable justifications during his post-release interview only made the poll worse. But given the widespread discontent and overwhelmingly negative feedback directed at the committee, there was some small hope that the second week’s poll might resolve some of the problems. Or at least acknowledge that the committee overcorrected for “schedule rigor” in favor of a specific conference.

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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey speaks to the press during the SEC Football Kickoff Media Day at the Tampa Marriott in Tampa, Florida on July 20, 2026. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)

Well, I hope everyone didn’t get their hopes up too high, because the release of week two on Tuesday night only reaffirmed the same concerns and frustrations from week one. Otherwise, make them worse. This week’s poll managed to take the obvious bias toward one conference and make it even more obvious, while Yurachek’s defense of an inexplicable rankings change only served to reaffirm that the committee is just making it up as it goes along.

Let’s start with the former #1 team in the country: the Miami Hurricanes.

Miami entered the week undefeated and is the consensus best team in the rankings. They hit the road to face a highly regarded Notre Dame team, ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll and No. 11 in the CFB Playoff Poll, without their best player, Malachi Toney. The Hurricanes had the ball on 4th and 6 with 3:36 left at the Notre Dame 18-yard line and appeared to complete a pass for a touchdown to tie the game. It looked like wrestling in real time and replay; the Miami receiver fell with one foot inbounds, then went out of bounds, before losing control of the ball. But officials on the ground called it incomplete, and the review confirmed that. They lost 31-24, but this play served to highlight how close the result was.

Losing on the road to a top team in a very close game, missing their best player. Surely the Hurricanes only dropped a few spots, right? After all, that’s the standard poll voters have set for the SEC; lose a close game on the road to a highly ranked team and you’ll lose a spot. Maybe.

Instead, Miami fell six spots at No. 7. When the Georgia Bulldogs lost, at home, to a mediocre Auburn Tigers team, AP Poll voters had them falling four spots. This is why fans of other conferences get upset; there is very little consistency in how these “experts” assess losses, and profits always seem to go in one direction.

Miami head coach Mario Cristobal yells at a referee during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Notre Dame, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, in South Bend, Indiana. (AP Photo/Paul Barnick)

Speaking of absurd declines, one of Yurachek’s most ridiculous comments after the vote was about the now no vote. 9 Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana entered the week ranked 4th and didn’t play, sitting out its bye week before a huge game against USC on Saturday. Without playing, they went from No. 4 to No. 9. Once again, they didn’t play. And they lost five places.

Inexplicable, right? Well, Yurachek was asked about it and tried to provide an explanation.

“Indiana was probably the victim of a poorly timed bye week with seven games between Top 25 teams,” he said. “The committee is really impressed with what UCLA, Texas and Notre Dame have done as well as Alabama and LSU.”

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“Every team Indiana has played against thus far in the Big Ten has all lost, which has affected their ranking in the schedule and the committee’s consideration of Indiana,” he continued. “Quarterback play in general and offensive play in general is kind of a talking point for Indiana…They’ve won games on their defense and not their offense.”

Dear lord. It’s absurd. Who cares how Indiana wins? Why is this important? When SEC teams dominated teams defensively, especially Nick Saban’s Alabama or the early Kirby Smart era at Georgia, it was a testament to their toughness, quality, and “defense wins championships” mindset. Now that Indiana is winning games with its defense, is that a negative? Alabama isn’t being punished for Mississippi State’s collapse, but does defeating Indiana’s opponents justify that?

Indiana’s non-conference schedule is frequently cited as unacceptably poor, but according to ESPN’s own FPI computer metrics, the Hoosiers’ best non-conference opponent, North Texas, would be an 8.5-point favorite over Georgia Tech, arguably UGA’s “toughest” non-conference opponent. Georgia Tech is 2-7. Perception and brand names often do not reflect reality.

Ironically, the committee was “impressed” with what UCLA did, beating Minnesota. The same Minnesota team as Indiana Also beat the week before their leave. Yes, UCLA had a higher scoring margin, but since when does that matter to the committee?

So Miami drops six spots after a close road loss to a top 11 team, Indiana drops five spots because they didn’t play. Hilariously, the Kentucky Wildcats, who were exposed in a blowout loss to Tennessee, only fell five spots as a result. There’s a lot more to cover further down the rankings, but Kentucky’s two losses are by 28 points and…28 points. They lost five places. See why rating margin matters, until it doesn’t?

Further down the list are other absurdities.

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USC moved up two spots to 18th at 7-2. They trail Iowa, also at 7-2, and several three-loss teams, including South Carolina. Three defeats. Missouri is also still ranked as a three-loss team, with an extremely unimpressive resume.

The Tigers’ non-conference schedule was horrible; Arkansas Pine Bluff, Kansas and Troy. They lost to Mississippi State, beat a bad and overrated Florida team, a bad Texas A&M team, got blown out by Ole Miss, beat a bad Arkansas team, and lost to Texas. This is a ranked team. For what? Because they’re playing at Kentucky this weekend, providing yet another “ranked game” SEC berth opportunity.

In fact, they’re ahead of Arizona, despite the Wildcats’ two close road losses at BYU and Texas Tech. Speaking of Arizona, at 6-2, they took a one-possession win over 4-5 TCU at home and fell one spot. South Carolina earned a home win over Texas A&M 4-5 and moved up four spots.

LSU is still ranked, even though it hasn’t had a single impressive win on its resume. Every game against a “quality” opponent, Ole Miss, Kentucky and Alabama, they lost. But they beat McNeese State 63-14, so they have that going for them.

LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin stands on the field during the first half of a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on November 7, 2026. (Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)

Some mentioned that Tennessee was five spots behind Alabama, despite the Volunteers’ head-to-head victory. But Yurachek allays those concerns because the two teams are not in the same “modules” made up that the committee uses to compare the teams. Face-to-face only matters until it doesn’t.

The reality, as we have seen over the past two weeks, is that the committee does not have consistent, meaningful standards. They make it up as they go along. The strength of the calendar relies primarily on perception and brand names. Face-to-face only matters sometimes. Injuries to key starting players are important, but only for certain positions and times.

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The committee simply selects teams based on what they want the results to look like, then creates post-hoc justifications afterward. This is why there is no consistency from week to week, Indiana is down five spots without playing and the explanations provided by Yurachek are so easily dismissed.

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What should be done? Well, that requires a longer explanation, but a start would be to create a clear set of standards that would be consistently enforced. Transparency around the exact metrics the committee uses to create its “strength of schedule” claims, not just week-to-week “we think this win looks better now” changes. Will we get it? Absolutely not. Will these rankings continue to be a farce? Without a doubt.