COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 28, 2023

Boo Corrigan

Bill Hancock

CFP Media Conference

BRETT DANIELS: I'd like to welcome everyone to the penultimate College Football Playoff Selection Committee teleconference for the 2023 season. Joining us once again tonight is Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair.

Q. My question is obviously going to be the Ohio State question. They came in so close on the road against Michigan, and very close loss, so that was a relatively easy call for them. What factored into the committee to drop them that many spots?

BOO CORRIGAN: Well, again, in looking at it, you're not looking specifically at one team as much as you are a group of teams and the teams around them and what did they do this past week. Again, specifically Oregon continues to impress, the win over Oregon State, holding a team to seven points that's averaging 34 points. Again, a lot of respect for Ohio State being No. 6. A really good team, but to your point, it's a one-possession game on the road, but the committee ranked Oregon 5 and Ohio State 6.

Q. Could either one of you give me a sense of the pecking order of criteria that the committee will use next week when determining the top 4? I know this is a hypothetical, but should Alabama and Texas both finish 12-1 with one spot available, how do you determine which one gets in?

BILL HANCOCK: Thank you for asking. Those tiebreaker criteria are not prioritized, so it'll be up to the judgment of each committee member which of the tiebreakers are more important to him or her. There's just no established priority for the tiebreakers.

BOO CORRIGAN: Just to add on to that, there's so many great games coming up this weekend. Seven of the eight teams are playing in conference championship games, and quite frankly, we're all looking forward to watching them. It's been a great year this season, and we're looking forward to seeing how it all ends up.

Q. Obviously you guys thought highly of Ohio State all season long, the committee did, and to get to this point now when there's so many teams that are going to be playing this weekend and Ohio State is not, how does that complicate the head to head decisions that you're talking about in those groups, that Ohio State will not be playing this weekend when these other teams will be giving you another data point?

BOO CORRIGAN: Well, again, thank you for the question. It happens in my three years since I've been on the committee. It happens every year, something along these lines. Maybe not seven of eight playing in a championship game, but typically there's one team that does not play, and as we look at it to your point, it is an extra data point that we have and something else that we can look at as we're evaluating it, and as we said from the very beginning, it's never one single data point, it's everything combined, and it's 13 different people that are all committed to doing it the right way, committed to doing it with integrity and committed to getting it right.

Q. Can you take us through the discussion between Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Alabama and how you guys kind of figured out that order?

BOO CORRIGAN: Well, what I'd share with you, a lot of conversation early when we went into the room, at the end of the day, and then coming back again this morning to make sure that we were hearing every opinion.

The good news is everyone is weighing in to everything, where they're opinions are, what their point is on each one of those teams. All 11-1, all with good wins, all obviously have lost a game, and looking at it and as we came through the evaluation of that, after weighing many points and making sure that we took our time going through it, we ended up where we did at 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Q. You guys have a lot to look at this weekend with the top 4 and trying to sort that out, but for the Group of Five schools this weekend means a lot for Liberty and Tulane. Is it as simple as looking as if Tulane wins, it's in, or do you examine closely how both of those teams perform, and if they both win, and liberty maybe wins more impressively against a 10-win New Mexico State than Tulane does against SMU, does that come into consideration as far as next week's final ranking?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we're going to approach it the same way as we look at this and make sure that we are evaluating everything. It goes on -- I believe Liberty plays Friday night, so we'll be able to see that. Obviously then we'll watch the Tulane game on Saturday and make sure, just as we have all season, that we're looking at everything and making sure that we're comparing for those two specifically, the course of the entire season, all 13 of their games, and making sure that we come up with the right decision.

There's nothing easy about any part of this.

Q. What does the committee see as the gap right now between Washington and Florida State at 3 and 4 and Oregon and Ohio State at 5 and 6?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, not to be funny, but you can't get closer than 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 in what we're looking at, and we continue to evaluate it.

The rivalry games last weekend, they're crazy, right? How those games are played, and typically all the young people know each other that are playing. Maybe they've been recruited by both schools and really looking at it.

But like I said earlier, it's an early, it's a middle, it's a late conversation that we all have and make sure that everyone is weighing in to where we are and looking at them.

The advantage we have this year, and I do believe it's an advantage, we've got a lot of great teams, and we've got a lot of great choices to make.

Q. What concerns, if any, were there about Florida State's performance against Florida?

BOO CORRIGAN: You know, they're a different team. It's pretty obvious, with Jordan Travis not playing and Tate Rodemaker playing, they're a different team, just as anyone would be if they lost their quarterback in that situation. But they were able to get a win down in Gainesville. They were able to put up 24 points. Defense let up 13. There was a safety.

We're just evaluating it at this point where they are with the body of work throughout the season, while a topic of discussion, as it should be, as injuries should be at this point, and player availability, if you will, it's a big part of the conversation.

Q. There is definitely a degree of recency bias I suppose in all the teams, how they're playing right now, and I guess I ask the age-old question of most deserving versus four best. We've heard protocol referred to for conference champions. Can you maybe clarify those terms and concepts that we're dealing with there?

BILL HANCOCK: I appreciate your asking that question. It is best. Most deserving is not anything in the committee's lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that's what they do. Just keep that word in mind, best teams.

Q. Then on the recency bias part?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, we make sure that we do talk about that. That's something that is brought up and made sure -- specifically I remember the conversation of some teams lost early, some teams lost in the middle, some teams lost late, and making sure that we're checking all that at the door as we go through this and looking at everything and looking at -- 13 weeks is what's important, and from the very beginning of the committee, the first, second, third week matters as much as it does at the end, but you've got to look at overall where they are after 13 weeks.

Q. At this point in the season a team ranked eighth has never gotten to the College Football Playoff. Is there a road for Alabama to get into the top 4, whether that be just be Georgia or beat Georgia and get some help? Is there a road for Alabama at this point?

BOO CORRIGAN: Good question, fair question, but it's kind of asking us to project on where we are. Our goal is to watch games this weekend, and it'll be great to be able to watch them as a group as we go through it and as we've talked about before. Conference championships and head-to-heads and everything that we look at per the protocol will be in full effect of what we're doing and making sure that we make the right decisions.

Q. How much separation does the committee see between Texas and Alabama there at 7 and 8?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, same thing. Again, it is close. As we look at it, you can look at any part of what we're doing when you get here in the different groupings and everything that we do, but two really good teams that have had really good years, done a great job by Sark and by Coach Saban, and we'll just continue to evaluate.

Q. To follow up, I guess I'm trying to clarify the whole recency thing. Does Texas's head-to-head win against Alabama carry as much weight as it would if it would have happened later in the season? Does it still carry that same amount of weight even though it happened in week two, or does it carry less week because it happened earlier in the season?

BOO CORRIGAN: Head-to-head is head-to-head, no matter when the game is played, and that's how we look at it.

Q. At the top of the rankings if 1 through 4 held up, you would have teams probably going to their historical bowl tie-ins for the semifinals, especially Michigan and either Washington or Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Will that be any kind of a consideration when you do your final 1 through 4? Secondly, you've already been asked about Tulane and Liberty. Is there a path for SMU? How close are they to the top 25? Is there a path for SMU or any of the other potential Group of Five champions to get that New Year's Six bid?

BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, I mean, no, there will not be consideration to the bowls on what it relates to our top 4. We're going to seed them and place them as we do without any consideration to the history.

With regard to the others, as we look at that, and conference championships matter, so yes is the answer as we look at that and look at all the teams that are in the conference championships, whether it's Tulane, SMU, Liberty, New Mexico State. You've got Toledo and Miami of Ohio. As we're looking at it, our goal again is to try and find the best Group of Five team.

BILL HANCOCK: Just so everybody knows about how the bowl assignments work for the semifinals, preference goes to the No. 1 team, so they would take the bowl closer to their fans, and then of course the No. 2 team and its opponent would go to the other game. As you know, the semifinals this year are at the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl.

I thought it might be helpful to just clarify that. The preference goes to the No. 1 team.