College Football

CFP Rankings: A love letter to Ohio State from the College Football Playoff committee

Updated Nov. 17, 2021 1:13 a.m. ET

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

FROM: The CFP committee
1501 Gaylord Trail
Grapevine, TX 76051

I love you.

I know we’ve had our differences, but I’ve always wanted you since the very beginning.

In 2014, I let you in, despite the fact that you lost to Virginia Tech at home, and I ranked you No. 16 to start. But that was my first time doing this.

Still, I was wrong to leave you out of the 2018 playoff. I see that now. You were a much better match for Alabama than that horrid Oklahoma team.

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RJ Young dives into what a 16-team playoff would look like this season, based on the current rankings. In this bracket, the Cincinnati Bearcats, Michigan Wolverines, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Oklahoma State Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooners would all make the competition.

That team didn’t even have a pulse. Did you see Quinnen Williams living in the OU backfield, too?

I feared for poor, little Kyler Murray's nonexistent professional baseball career. How that team ever scored 34 points on a Nick Saban playoff squad is beyond me.

But you made it easy for me in 2019, and I love you for that.

You belong in the top four. All we have to do is look at the past two years to see that. You were undefeated before Chris Olave slipped and the refs totally missed that outstanding play by Jeff Okudah against Clemson.

You were definitely the matchup LSU didn’t want, but I didn’t want you on the same field as Oklahoma. I still don’t.

I mean, that team lost to Baylor — Baylor. And to think somebody thought I was wrong to rank the Sooners No. 8 after their shaky 9-0 start — the absolute gall of that national college football writer.

We won’t have to hear from him about that anymore. I just wish he’d quiet down about UTSA. I don’t care if the Roadrunners are 10-0. I mean, honestly, that program is two minutes old.

It doesn’t even matter, though, because I make the rankings, and what I say goes. And I said 6-3 Purdue was No. 17 in the country, despite the Boilermakers’ not being ranked in the AP Top 25.

I said Michigan is a better football team than Michigan State, despite the Spartans having beaten the Wolverines in a head-to-head matchup that was one of the most-viewed games of the season.

And don’t you worry about Oregon. I’ll take care of it.

Head-to-head? Matters only when I say it does.

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You see what I’m doing, don’t you? I’m making sure that four of the last five opponents you play are Top-25 teams.

You’ll have played a Penn State team that was ranked at the time. Same with Purdue. And Michigan and Michigan State are both top-10 teams.

Because I said so. And I love you.

Plus, I’d argue Nebraska is the best 3-7 team in America! I don’t see that national college football writer making that argument. He just keeps yelling "Undefeated!" and "Rank Cincy in the top four, you cowards!" like some sort of loudmouth on a soapbox.

He just doesn’t get it.

I couldn't care less about any other team from the state of Ohio, including 10-0 Cincinnati. Honestly, that team is lucky to be No. 5. The only G5 I’m interested in is a business jet to fly to Indianapolis so I can see you.

You’re the one I want, Ohio State.

XOXO,

— THE College Football Playoff Committee

P.S. Beat Xichigan

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.