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COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 17, 2015

Jeff Long

Grapevine, Texas

GINA LEHE: Good evening, and welcome to tonight's rankings teleconference. Once again I am joined by College Football Playoff Selection Committee Chair Jeff Long and Executive Director of the College Football Playoff, Bill Hancock. We will begin tonight with opening remarks from Jeff and then turn it over to the operator as she mentioned for questions. As a reminder we are transcribing tonight's call which will be posted later this evening on collegepressbox.com. At this time please welcome Jeff Long.

JEFF LONG: Good evening, everyone, and thanks again for joining this call. Our third week of rankings is complete, and there's no change at the top. In fact, for the first time in the brief history of the College Football Playoff, there's no change in the top four rankings. There's also no change in the top five rankings. But there is considerable change below.

The top ranked team is Clemson; second ranked team is Alabama; third ranked team is Ohio State; and the fourth ranked team is Notre Dame.

Most teams have now played 10 games, so we have a substantial body of work. We are looking forward to the remaining games in the regular season, which feature a number of key head-to-head match-ups, and let me remind you the CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS will become one of the factors we will look at in the final weekend.

The committee spent considerable time discussing and debating the middle of the rankings through the top 25 because so many of these teams are so close to one another. As you know, that's one of the reasons we have a committee, to make these decisions. Committee members examine team records, strength of schedule, quality of play and other factors, but they also cast votes based on their college football judgment and expertise. The result is this week's top 25.

I'd be happy to take any of your questions at this time.

Q. I'll try and keep it easy for you. Last year just as an observer, it felt like when you gave your reasons for why teams were ranked where they were, it felt like there was more talk about the rÃ©sumÃ© and who teams beat, and this year it feels like there's more Iowa is better, we're looking forward to seeing what Ohio State looks like with J.T. Barrett, and Alabama is passing the eye test. It feels like there's more intangibles, and I was wondering if you have gotten that sense from within the room that there is more of the eye test and there is more leaning on the coaches' expertise, and does having an extra coach in the room influence that?
JEFF LONG: Well, I will say, first of all, no, I guess I don't feel those intangibles taking over and dominating the discussion. And I'm not -- so no, I don't feel that.

I think having a coach in the room is very helpful. I've said that before, because they look at games and break them down differently than those of us who haven't coached in the room. So I think their opinions are valuable. They don't dominate the conversation. They do provide a different and unique perspective because they have coached these teams.

RÃ©sumÃ©s are still very important. We still look at those top-25 wins and their other wins against teams with better than .500 records. We really look at their entire body of work, that entire rÃ©sumÃ©, and at this point we're getting much, much more information with nine to ten games in the books. So we have much more information now to make decisions about these teams.

Q. I know it's sort of a look-ahead question, but I'm wondering if there's any possible way to, within that room now, gauge how a conference championship could be weighed against a team that is not in a conference, and obviously I'm talking about Notre Dame against these other teams that could possibly have a conference championship. Is it possible to get a gauge of what that could do to Notre Dame by simply not having that box to check?
JEFF LONG: You know, there's really not, because they're truly still, with three weeks of games left, there's still so many different things that can happen and occur, upsets, wins. It's just really hard for us to look out and anticipate those things, so we don't. We do focus on where we are now. We do know we have great match-ups coming up. We've got conferences with back-loaded schedules. We've got those big games coming in a number of conferences.

We really don't take the time to look out there because we think it's wasted energy and time. We'll certainly deal with those questions when we have that full body of work, those rÃ©sumÃ©s complete with those championships, and make that analysis. But we don't do it at this point.

Q. Common opponents is something that the committee will look at?
JEFF LONG: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's something we naturally look at but also part of the protocols that we have, as well.

Q. Ohio State hasn't played a ranked team yet but has two or three upcoming against teams in the top 12. What are your impressions of the Buckeyes, and second, how different is this system from the polls in the sense that in the polls the most recent games seem to be weighted. In the College Football Playoff ranking, is a late loss more relevant, or do you make a conscious effort to make it just one out of 12 on a rÃ©sumÃ©?
JEFF LONG: Well, first of all, Ohio State has just had a dominating defense, and again, as we've watched this team, we know one thing has been consistent: Their defense has been dominating.

You know what, their offense, I think sometimes we have high expectations for them, but their offense is performing well. Certainly they've had some quarterback changes there, but overall they continue to perform at a high level.

And what was the second part of that question?

Q. In the poll system, if you lose late, it really seems to be weighted. Are you guys making a conscious effort to not do that, to make it just -- let's say Ohio State loses to Michigan State or Michigan, that it's just one of 12 on a rÃ©sumÃ©, or do you say, okay, because it just happened, we're going to weight that a little bit more?
JEFF LONG: We don't talk about weighting wins if they're late in the season or early in the season. You know, we look at that win -- now, certainly we're aware if teams have had a stretch of wins at the end of season and how they played in those games, but it's still more about who they played, how they played in those games and how they won those games.

Q. I noticed in looking at TCU, they fell from 15th last week to 18th. Is that a reflection of some of the injuries that they have had, obviously to Josh Doctson and Trevone Boykin?
JEFF LONG: Well, I would say that those injuries resulted in the way they played the games. I mean, TCU has had, from our view, really one significant test, and they lost that game to Oklahoma State, and then this week, you know, they struggled against a winless Kansas team. So I think that's more about why their team has moved to 17th in our ranking.

Q. One other quick follow, I don't know if you watched ESPN's broadcast tonight, but when Notre Dame was revealed as No. 4, there were some boos that could be heard on the broadcast from fans who were at the United Center. Does that kind of have any reflection in what you feel like these polls are being perceived nationally by some of the football fans out there?
JEFF LONG: No, I couldn't hear it. I'm not aware of it. But certainly it all depends on what fan base you are, whether you like our rankings or not. That's going to happen every week, everywhere across the country.

Q. You've got the three loss teams at the bottom of the rankings with the Trojans and Oregon and Ole Miss. What about the other three losing teams, or the three-loss teams like Penn State, BYU and Pitt? Would they make it in there next week if they knock off their tough opponents this week?
JEFF LONG: Well, we can't speculate on that, but I will tell you that those teams certainly are teams that we are aware of, we looked, we evaluated, we discussed them, and we've looked at a number of three-loss teams as well as some 8-2 teams that are not in the rankings. So there's a number of teams outside that 25 that we continue to watch and evaluate.

Q. And another question is with the weather changing, everything starting to get colder now, is that a factor, too, in games coming up down the road the next three weeks? You've got winter coming.
JEFF LONG: Well, weather is part of the game of football, and so we'll be watching those games. But ultimately a win is a win and a loss is a loss.

Q. I know I asked you last week about the Group of Five teams again, but I'm just curious if you had any other Group of Five teams that you were considering this week. You have Houston, Navy and Memphis up there, but do you all look at Navy, Western Kentucky, a Marshall or perhaps a Toledo again?
JEFF LONG: Absolutely. Again, Toledo, as you mentioned, a number of teams back there that we're still looking at and watching in the Group of Five. We don't like to talk too far beyond those, but you know, it's natural to think that a team like Toledo who was 8-1 to start the night is certainly in our evaluation.

Q. Ralph asked you before about looking at the shared opponent. Has that come into play at all comparing Oklahoma and Notre Dame with that shared Texas game between the two of them?
JEFF LONG: Sure, yeah. That's one, and there's a number of them that we look at. But certainly we're aware that the Texas win and -- excuse me, the Notre Dame win and the Oklahoma loss.

Q. When it comes to Oklahoma in specific, how much are you putting onto that -- you mentioned TCU being weighed down, other teams being weighed down by a loss. In your eyes does Texas qualify as kind of that inexplicable loss, or is it a loss that is kind of pulling Oklahoma down just based on the way the Longhorns have played this year?
JEFF LONG: Well, yeah, certainly. If they had won that game, I think they might be ranked differently. But again, we try not to speculate, but certainly we're aware of that loss. It factors into the rankings of Oklahoma and will continue to be part of their rÃ©sumÃ©. It doesn't go away.

Q. Baylor only dropped a few spots in the rankings. Was that a reflection of the way they played or maybe how good OU is?
JEFF LONG: I think it's both of those things. I think that the committee as we said earlier were kind of waiting to see Baylor against a quality opponent, and certainly Oklahoma was that, and I think that we -- some in the room, some of the committee members gained a much better feel of Baylor. Even though they lost the game, they stood in there toe-to-toe with an Oklahoma team and played well. I think that's the reason why they didn't drop further. I think that kind of validated the strength of Baylor offensively and defensively.

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