COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 7, 2023

Boo Corrigan

Bill Hancock

CFP Media Conference

BRETT DANIELS: I'd like to welcome everyone to the second College Football Playoff Selection Committee teleconference for the 2023 season. Joining us tonight is Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair. At this time I'll turn it over to boo for a brief opening comment.

BOO CORRIGAN: Good evening. I hope everyone is doing well. We have concluded our second week of work as a Selection Committee, and as you know, the committee has ranked Ohio State 1, Georgia 2, Michigan 3, and Florida State 4.

Before I take your questions, I want to let the group know that Warde Manuel was not able to join us this week. This had no impact on the work of the Selection Committee. This is not the first time we've had a person miss a meeting, nor will it be the last. It just kind of happens.

I'm sure you have your questions on this week's rankings, and I'm happy to take them now.

Q. Was curious about the debate at No. 1 this week with Georgia winning over Missouri and how that factored into them with Ohio State at No. 1.

BOO CORRIGAN: Well, I can assure you, we talked about it early, we talked about it in the middle and we talked about it late to make sure that we had it, as a committee, the win over Rutgers, a top-20 defense, put up 28 points, another seven on a pick six, TreVeyon Henderson being back for his second game, the win over Penn State, the win over Notre Dame, the win at Wisconsin, seven wins over teams with winning records really drove the day.

Q. I wanted to ask you about transitive properties. I know you guys do a lot with metrics and last week you explained that the coaches are also weighing heavily with the eye test. I guess I'd specifically refer to the Texas-Alabama game. Is that the sort of thing that carries throughout the season, or do you also take into consideration quarterback changes and the length of time that that game was early in the season?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we're going to look at everything. Every game matters. You talk to any coach, they're going to talk about every game mattering and winning matters, et cetera.

The beauty of this committee to me is it's not driven by watching games. It's not driven specifically by the resume or by the metrics. We work really hard and take everything in. We work really hard to get everyone in the room to talk and make sure that they're voicing their opinions.

Again, the coaches do carry maybe a little bit of extra weight when they're talking about it and examples that they've had in their career, but Maalik Murphy had a good game this week for Texas. Jalen Milroe has continued to come on, and all credit to Coach Saban and what they've done down there at Alabama.

Q. Two quick questions on the G5 side. Did the committee's discussion or opinion of Tulane change very much following a close win for them this weekend, and was there a discussion of Liberty who's undefeated currently?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we did. We talked a lot about it. Again, our goal was to get 1 through 25 correct, and we spend time on all of them, understanding not only what it means from a G5 standpoint but just to be ranked in general on a lot of campuses.

But yeah, the win against a 1-8, maybe 1-7 when they played ECU team was something that we did talk a lot about and how that game went, and we continue to look at Liberty and other Group of Five schools.

Q. Wanted to ask about the 6 through 8 conversation. Why is Oregon ranked ahead of Texas and Alabama?

BOO CORRIGAN: Again, looking at the win over Utah, understanding that Texas has a win over Alabama, Alabama comes back with wins over Mississippi, Tennessee, LSU, but it's a compilation of everything that I was talking about in answering Joe. It's not one single metric, but we spent a lot of time on it, and we want to make sure we get it right.

It's not we do it one time and then move on. We'll do it one time and then come back to it again and come back to it again and make sure that everyone is comfortable with where we are.

Q. You mentioned on the ESPN broadcast that the Ohio State win over Rutgers sort of being a resume enhancement at this point. Can you go more into that? Was Rutgers a team in either of these first two weeks, more last week, that the committee looked at as a possible top-25 team, or what was it about Rutgers' quality that you thought was a strong win for Ohio State?

BOO CORRIGAN: Again, winning is really important, so let's not lose sight of that. Also Rutgers with the top-20 defense wins on the road are hard to come by. As you're looking at it, I don't know that it was something necessarily that everyone looked at and bumped them up, but they continued to move on, they continue to play well. Really physical team. TreVeyon Henderson, as I said before, being back, going for over 100 yards the last two games helps them overall as a team, with their top-5 defense, as well.

Q. I wanted to ask about Florida State. What was the committee's assessment and kind of evaluation of their strength of schedule and how that played into putting them at 4?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, again, really good team. Coach Norvell has done a heck of a job down there in Tallahassee, and the combination of the wins over LSU and at Clemson, against Duke, winning last week without Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman, two of their key elements of offense, and the physicality of their defense, and their offense puts up 40 points a game, the defense allows about 17 points a game. So they continue to play really well, and it's a really well-coached football team.

Q. I know both of you answered my question last week about Michigan, and I was just wondering with the Big Ten's latest interest in this situation, did that impact conversations at all? Did that come up?

BILL HANCOCK: I appreciate your asking. Totally understand the question. The fact is it did not come up because -- well, it's the same as last week. The task of the committee is to rank the teams, and that's what we do every week.

Q. You mentioned last week that you don't deal in hypotheticals, but when it comes to the transitioning teams, James Madison today was in contact with the NCAA. Seems likely there's going to be a lawsuit from the Attorney General in Virginia. Also seems incredibly likely there won't be enough 6-6 teams to fill all the bowl spots. It seems to be getting less hypothetical by the day. Has the committee discussed James Madison at all?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, of course. Just remember that the committee will rank any team that is eligible for postseason.

Q. So it's safe to say if they become postseason eligible, they will immediately be considered for the rankings?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah. Yes. The committee will rank any team -- I don't want to be a smart-aleck here, but the fact is the committee will rank any team that's eligible for postseason.

Q. Can you guys justify with Alabama's win over LSU as to how and why you guys kept them at the No. 8 spot?

BOO CORRIGAN: Again, as we look at this as a committee, we continue to evaluate the play on the field. We continue to evaluate the resume, as well as statistics. Texas has the win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa, which is a significant game overall this season as we look at that as well as Oregon continuing to play really well, their win over Utah and the balance of the top-5 offense and top-15 defense.

Q. What are the committee's thoughts on the quality of the Pac-12 so far this season? Obviously U of A just jumped up to No. 21 this week after their win, and Oregon and Washington State are just on the outside looking in.

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, a really good conference, and you can tell by our rankings the respect that we have. We have respect for all the conferences that are out there and what they're doing, but specifically to Arizona, the three straight wins, two of their losses coming in overtime, a seven-point loss to Washington and the job that Coach Fisch has done out there is really something, including the win last week over UCLA.

Q. One more question on the Michigan situation. I know you said last week that it's an NCAA issue and not a CFP issue, and I'm wondering if you've had any discussion on when it becomes a CFP issue?

BILL HANCOCK: We are not a governance body, and so we're certainly all aware of the Michigan situation, but it's just not a CFP matter. We will take what we get from the NCAA or from anybody else, and whatever facts are available to those other groups, then we'll consider it. But all we do is rank the teams that are eligible for our games.

Q. My question comes in regards to the ranking of Iowa. They were unranked last week, and they have had, to put it mildly, very low-scoring games this entire season, including a last-second win over a below .500 Northwestern. What justified in the committee's eyes such a high jump from unranked to I believe it was 22nd in the rankings?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, 22nd. 7-2 record, a defense that's giving up 13 points a game. As you look at it across the landscape, their wins over Iowa State, their win over Wisconsin, the offense has struggled. We're all aware of that. But there's three phases of the game, and in two of them, they're really solid. We're looking to do what we can to make sure that we get the right 25 teams ranked.

Q. I know last week it was said that the top group was viewed as being those top 4 teams and that Washington was maybe a notch below that top group. I'm curious if their result on Saturday against USC changed sort of the gap between them at No. 5 and those four teams ahead of them?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, not to be funny, but you can't get much closer than 4 to 5 in what we're doing. Again, we talked a lot about it. The close calls with Arizona State and Stanford, who have a combined five wins, a defense that's giving up 42 and 33 -- 33 points twice and 32 points in games, incredibly explosive offense. Michael Penix, Jr., has been amazing this year, but as we looked at it, we had Washington at 5 below Florida State.