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COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 1, 2016

Kirby Hocutt

Grapevine, Texas

GINA LEHE: Kirby Hocutt will begin with opening remarks and then we will turn it over for questions. As a reminder, we are transcribing tonight's call, which will be posted later on collegepressbox.com. At this time, please welcome Kirby Hocutt.

KIRBY HOCUTT: Good evening. Thank you for joining the call. Today marks the first ranking of the 2016 season, and it's exciting to begin our work as a selection committee.

As you know from the previous two years, we will return five more times and will announce our final rankings on Sunday, December the 4th.

For the last two days, the committee met to discuss in depth a variety of factors that led us to the rankings we announced today. Our charge is to select the four best teams in college football.

As you know, there are many factors that go into our rankings. It starts with winning, of course. Winning tells us a lot, but does not tell us everything. Our committee's charge is to go deeper, and we always look at the strength of schedule. We always look at quality wins. We look at who teams have beaten and where those games were played. Head-to-head matchups are important to us. Injuries are a consideration, and as you know, eventually we'll discuss the importance of being a conference champion.

The committee ranked today Alabama No. 1, Clemson No. 2, Michigan No. 3, and Texas A&M No. 4. The committee felt that Alabama is the nation's most complete team at this time. Clemson keeps winning with a very tough schedule to date, including wins at home against Louisville and on the road at Auburn and Florida State.

That makes Clemson the only team to have beaten two teams in our top 10. Michigan has beaten three teams in our top 25, including their win over a good Wisconsin team.

We had a lengthy discuss on the fourth spot. Texas A&M won at Auburn and beat Arkansas at a neutral site. Their only loss was on the road against the current No. 1 team in the nation, Alabama. Washington is a well-balanced team, and they had a good win last week on the road against Utah, but in the committee's mind, Texas A&M has played a stronger schedule, and at this point in time, beating four teams with winning records, and Washington has only beat two.

When you look at the rest of the rankings, the committee placed two-loss Wisconsin and Auburn ahead of several one-loss teams. Again, strength of schedule plays an important role in the committee's rankings.

We also spent time this week talking about the Group of Five. The committee ranked Western Michigan at 23, one spot ahead of Boise State at 24.

I want to thank all committee members for the considerable time they took to prepare for this meeting. We have three great new members of the committee, and I can tell you they fit right in with everyone. I can already see that this year's group has great chemistry, and we look forward to the weeks ahead.

I also want to remind you that the committee is made up of 12 college football experts with diverse professional backgrounds. These members were selected because of their experience and knowledge. Our job is to carefully weigh in and discuss who each of us think are the best four teams and why. That is what we will do each and every week.

Thank you for listening, and I'm happy to take your questions at this time.

Q. Louisville is a team that has had a lot of dominant performances. Their only loss on the road was a close game at Clemson. Why did they end up coming in below two other one-loss teams?
KIRBY HOCUTT: Louisville was a team that the committee talked in depth about over the last two days. The committee was impressed that Louisville continues to win. The only loss is to our No. 2 ranked Clemson. Their schedule is not as strong as the two teams that you alluded to. Their only win against a team with a winning record was against Florida State. Obviously a very impressive win there, but when you look at Ohio State at 7-1 and Texas A&M at the 4 spot at 7-1, the committee just did not believe at this time that their schedule is as strong as those other two one-loss teams.

Q. I'm curious about margin of victory and the role that that's playing. You look at Michigan and the fact that they beat Penn State, which is the No. 12 team in your rankings by such a significant margin, do you weigh that as compared to specifically someone else?
KIRBY HOCUTT: We do not incent margin of victory in any way. Winning is important, but the committee over the last two days as well as last year, serving on this body, we do not talk about margin of victory. We look at quality wins and the performance of that particular team up until this current week's ranking.

Q. One of the bigger discrepancies between these rankings was Western Michigan No. 17 in the AP Poll. Can you guys explain how you reached your decision regarding them and why you thought they were a little less deserving?
KIRBY HOCUTT: We talked about Western Michigan over the past two days in a lot of detail. Obviously an undefeated team, but their schedule strength is a concern to the committee. As we look at the quality of wins that they have had over the course of this season, we believe that they belong in the 23rd spot.

We looked at Western Michigan, again, an undefeated team, but the quality of their wins, their strength of schedule placed them at the 23 spot by the selection committee.

Q. Obviously you guys don't use polls in this, but Penn State was rated rather highly by you guys versus the human polls, ahead of some one-loss teams and some undefeated teams. What went into that?
KIRBY HOCUTT: You're exactly right. We do not discuss in our selection committee room the other polls, and I personally have been careful not to look at those. We discussed Penn State based upon their merits as the committee saw them. They've played a very strong schedule, and obviously the win over No. 6 Ohio State is a quality win.

Four of their six wins are against teams with winning records. Penn State is a team that has improved as the season has gone along, so the committee was very confident that we had Penn State placed at the right spot at No. 12.

Q. I wanted to ask, what were some of the biggest discussions, debates, points that you guys went over during this first ranking? Was it the 4, 5, or was it more toward the bottom end of the 25 this time around?
KIRBY HOCUTT: That's a very good question. There was a lot of conversation by the selection committee throughout, as you know, from participating in the mocks -- a lot of discussion from the selection committee on 2 and 3, Clemson at No. 2 and Michigan at No. 3. We spent considerable time debating and discussing those two teams at those spots, and then as you would expect, a lot of robust discussion related around No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 5 Washington.

But I can also say that the discussion went further than that. A lot of debate around teams 4, 5, 6 and 7. You know, while there were various areas throughout this week's ranking that were robust, I would say that 2 and 3 and then 4 and 5, and to a larger extent, 4, 5, 6 and 7, brought about some of our more engaged and in-depth discussions over the past two days.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Ohio State. I guess whether or not Ohio State was involved at all in your discussion that you just mentioned between 4 and 5, considering Ohio State has a couple wins over teams .500 or better, two teams ranked in your top 15. Just wondering how the Buckeyes fit into that discussion or whether they were in it at all for No. 4?
KIRBY HOCUTT: Well, Ohio State was mentioned in that discussion. Two quality wins on the road against a Wisconsin team that ranks No. 8 in the CFP top-25 poll this week, as well as another quality road win at Oklahoma. The one loss on the road in a hostile environment to a Penn State team, as I mentioned in the previous question, that continues to improve. So Ohio State was a part of those discussions, and again, there's lots of football left to be played this season, but to answer your question, yes, Ohio State was discussed in the selection committee room within teams 4, 5, 6 and 7 this week.

Q. You talked about all the discussion around 2 and 3; what was the tipping point that put Clemson ahead of Michigan?
KIRBY HOCUTT: In reflection of the last two days with the committee, the two wins against CFP top-10 wins were something that stood out to us that nobody else within the CFP top 25 have. I think the road wins at Auburn and Florida State impressed the selection committee, and obviously the win at home against Louisville gave the edge to Clemson for that No. 2 spot.

That being said, the separation was small. Michigan has beaten three teams in our top 25, including a very good CFP ranked No. 8 Wisconsin team. Michigan has a great defense and has been very consistent as the season has gone along. Again, the separation between 2 and 3 was very small.

Q. As it relates to Louisville, did the fact that they won very narrowly against Duke and then this past week against Virginia, did that diminish their outlook at all?
KIRBY HOCUTT: Well, I would say that each week is important. Each week every team has an opportunity to strengthen or weaken their rÃ©sumÃ©. You know, as we look at strength of schedule, we're also within our discussions talking about how they performed on the field, and we spent considerable time talking about the games, the eye test, and I would say that each week a team has a chance to strengthen their rÃ©sumÃ© or weaken their rÃ©sumÃ©, so we're watching, but as I said earlier, they continue to win, and there's a lot of football left to be played.

Q. With the Pac-12 being down this year, because I know Stanford has been struggling with injuries and all that stuff, is that the reason why Washington is not in the top four, because they beat a Stanford team that is basically an injured club right now?
KIRBY HOCUTT: You know, we do not discuss in our selection committee room particular conferences. We look at the individual teams and their performance each week of this college football season.

Obviously Washington had a very solid win on the road against Utah last week. The committee was impressed with their performance in Utah, but overall their schedule strength is not as strong. Strength of schedule, that metric, is not measured only by your conference play. There's a lot of other factors that go into that metric, including non-conference opponents, et cetera. We don't look at strength of a particular conference; we look at each team individually, and Washington's strength of schedule is just not as strong as No. 4 Texas A&M's is at this point in the college football season.

Q. You mentioned it briefly during your ESPN interview, but can you reaffirm the importance that conference championships won will play in the eventual decision the committee makes?
KIRBY HOCUTT: You know, the management committee has given the College Football Playoff selection committee the flexibility and the charge to ultimately select the four very best teams in college football, and they have instructed us that when those margins are very narrow that there are some factors to take into consideration, and those four factors are head-to-head competition, games against common opponents, the conference championship, and the fourth being the strength of schedule.

Now, they have not instructed the selection committee that any four of those components carry more weight than another one of those four. That's left to the discretion of each of the selection committee members.

That being said, winning a Conference Championship is significant and is important, and that's something that once we get to that point in the season, we'll be able to evaluate and look at the totality of the college football season.

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