The college football polls will have one last update on Sunday before we officially shift into the College Football Playoff portion of the season with the selection committee offering its own top 25. That will begin this Tuesday, Nov. 4, and while the committee claims a process of independent thought, it’s hard to ignore the human element of those committee members knowing — and reacting to — the AP Top 25 poll.
Often, the two sets of rankings will agree, particularly when it comes to the very best teams in the country. A consensus of 60+ AP poll voters are going to deliver a pretty sensible order, and usually the loss column is the ultimate sorter. But since the selection committee has less people and more discussion among the group, it’s easier for an outlier opinion to become the consensus. To that point, we’re looking not only to the new college football rankings wondering how the AP voters will react to the weekend’s results but also how the CFP committee might choose to over-rank or under-rank a team compared to the traditional polls.
One of those teams that will be very interesting to track is Texas, which improved to 7-2 on the season with a 34-31 win against top-10 Vanderbilt. Paired with a win against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry, the Longhorns’ resume looks much better now and the losses are tougher to weigh since Ohio State is the No. 1 team in the country and Florida is unranked. We are projecting that Texas is going to take a notable jump up into the top 15, but there is about a nine-spot range of realistic outcomes from the CFP Selection Committee.
Bowl projections: Texas returns to College Football Playoff contention, Miami’s hopes fading down stretch
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