The College Football Playoff rankings are almost always met with a fair amount of criticism, no matter what the committee does. But on Wednesday, the latest poll drew out the ire of ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser.
The Pardon The Interruption host voiced his displeasure with one particular decision the committee made during Tuesday night’s reveal. Kornheiser couldn’t believe that Notre Dame came in above Oklahoma State.
He explained why during Wednesday’s episode of PTI.
“I was outraged cause as you well know, Five minutes after this was revealed, I called you! And I said ‘You gotta be kidding with this. You gotta be kidding to put Oklahoma State ahead of Notre Dame!’” Kornheiser said to Michael Wilbon. “Oklahoma State had a good win at home against Oklahoma. That’s a good win. They’re now 11-1, the same as Notre Dame.
“Oklahoma State’s loss this year is to Iowa State… where is Iowa State ranked? Nowhere! They’re not ranked,” he continued. “Notre Dame goes out, they beat Stanford, they beat ’em down 45-17. I know Stanford is not a good team, but one of their wins is over Oregon, who’s rated 10th at the moment… Notre Dame’s loss is to No. 4 Cincinnati, which is a long way away from Iowa State, and the committee jumped them with Oklahoma State.
Kornheiser then finished off his point by saying that he thought the committee was trying to punish Notre Dame for Brian Kelly’s recent move to LSU that came to fruition on Monday night.
There’s only one reason this happened. That committee sat there and they wanted to hit Brian Kelly for leaving Notre Dame,” he explained. “They wanted Notre Dame to understand ‘You’re not getting into the playoff with an interim coach.’”
“Five minutes after this was revealed, I called you! And I said ‘You gotta be kidding with this. You gotta be kidding to put Oklahoma State ahead of Notre Dame!'”
– Tony, after this week’s College Football Playoff rankings were announced pic.twitter.com/sX1hFAivdo
— PTI (@PTI) December 1, 2021
The College Football Playoff Committee maintained that it did not take Kelly’s shocking departure into account when it came to the rankings, but Kornheiser isn’t buying it.
The Fighting Irish were dealt a tough hand with the most recent rankings, because they don’t have a chance to play their way into the Top 4 this weekend. Notre Dame has the weekend off, while the rest of the top teams in the country will play for conference championships.
That means the Fighting Irish will some help to get into the playoff. Not only would Oklahoma State have to fall to Baylor in the Big 12 Championship, but No. 1 Georgia would also likely have to hand No. 3 Alabama a loss for Notre Dame to get in.
Time will tell how the action shakes out on Saturday before the final rankings reveal on Sunday.
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