It’s not that the College Football Playoff selection committee moved Washington to No. 4. It’s that the committee moved UW to No. 4 ahead of No. 5 Florida State — the weekend after FSU star quarterback Jordan Travis suffered an injury that ended his college career.
The committee had enough evidence to rank the Huskies ahead of the Noles for at least two weeks.
Washington jumps Florida State for No. 4 in the CFP rankings
UW has played a far tougher schedule — second to No. 2-ranked Ohio State (11-0), which will play No. 3-ranked Michigan (11-0) this Saturday — amassing an 11-0 record while running a gauntlet that includes No. 15 Arizona and No. 6 Oregon, plus back-to-back-back wins against USC on the road, Utah at home and No. 16 Oregon State on the road.
The Noles’ best win is over an LSU team that fields a defense that couldn’t stop a drain if you gave it a pound of concrete and gallon of water.
Still, the committee apparently took into account how FSU played against FCS North Alabama — and not so much Travis’ injury — while finally recognizing what we knew to be true about Washington for weeks.
“Well, I thought first of all, there was concern for Jordan, what a great player he’s been and an appreciation for what he’s done, and the job Coach Norvell has done, but also the job he did in the last couple of years, particularly this year,” CFP chairman Boo Corrigan said.
“But looking at it, they’re down 13-0, they come back and score 58 consecutive points,” Corrigan continued. “You know, in talking about it and looking at it and with regards to them going from 4 to 5, as we said earlier, it had a lot to do with Washington. It had everything to do with Washington as we were looking at it. Again, as we’re looking at this, we’re going to close the books here a little bit on week 12 and then move on to week 13 and see how they play against Florida.”
Florida State takes on Florida in rivalry game with extra importance
If FSU fans can’t quite understand just what the committee is thinking, join us at Club “What Has The CFP Done Now?” where we try to make [clap] this [clap] make [clap] sense [clap]. But let’s table that and talk about just what FSU has within its control: Beating Florida.
The good news for FSU is that Florida is liable to engender respect from the committee. That’s because the committee has shown us it respects the SEC (East) enough to rank Missouri No. 9, simply because it didn’t lose by two TDs to Georgia on the road. The Tigers are the only two-loss team in the top 10.
What’s more? Missouri damn near lost at home to Florida with the starting quarterback on the bench during crunch time, and yet remained ranked No. 9 heading into the rivalry weekend. It’s also a Florida team that handed No. 21 Tennessee its first loss of the season, and that was a Tennessee team that was ranked No. 18 until the Vols got boat-raced by Georgia last weekend.
Previewing No. 2 Ohio State at No. 3 Michigan
So if the committee’s past rankings are to contain some insight into what it might do in the future, thumping the Gators in the Swamp with Tate Rodemaker at quarterback might be enough for the Noles to move right back into No. 4 ahead of the ACC title game against No. 10 Louisville.
However, all of this underlines just how contentious the conversation has become around UW, which hasn’t been blowing out teams because those teams are good. Still, the landscape is as clean for UW as it is for FSU: Beat Washington State on Saturday and then worry about the rankings on Tuesday.
We’ve reached the portion of our season — the last weekend of regular season football — where teams blink. If you’re Florida State or Washington, you’d better not blink first.
The College Football Playoff Rankings as of Nov. 21.
- Georgia (11-0)
- Ohio State (11-0)
- Michigan (11-0)
- Washington (11-0)
- Florida State (11-0)
- Oregon (10-1)
- Texas (10-1)
- Alabama (10-1)
- Missouri (9-2)
- Louisville (10-1)
- Penn State (9-2)
- Ole Miss (9-2)
- Oklahoma (9-2)
- LSU (8-3)
- Arizona (8-3)
- Oregon State (8-3)
- Iowa (9-2)
- Notre Dame (8-3)
- Kansas State (8-3)
- Oklahoma State (8-3)
- Tennessee (7-4)
- NC State (8-3)
- Tulane (10-1)
- Clemson (7-4)
- Liberty (11-0)
More on the College Football Playoff Rankings
Tuesday’s reveal was the fourth of six rankings announcements, capped by Selection Sunday on Dec. 3.
The top four teams will compete in the CFP semifinals, which will be held on Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The national championship game will be held on Jan. 8 in Houston.
College Football Rankings remaining 2023 schedule
- Tuesday, Nov. 28: 7 p.m. ET
- Sunday, Dec. 3: Noon ET (Selection Sunday)
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.
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