LSU Tigers

The LSU Tigers Got Screwed By The Playoff Committee

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Tuesday night, the College Football Playoff Committee released their updated rankings following Saturday’s action. LSU came in at number 16, which was a huge jump from their prior spot, but it really means nothing considering the team has three losses and has already lost the SEC West to Alabama.

I don’t really have too much to say on LSU’s spot in the rankings, but something else in the committee’s decision catches my eye, and frankly, leaves me furious.

In Tuesday’s top 25, the upper portion of the rankings was unveiled as Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, Louisville, and Washington. All six of those teams have been some of the most successful and talked about teams of the 2016 season, so what’s the big deal with that order, right?

Wrong.

The LSU Tigers got absolutely screwed by the playoff committee on Tuesday. Going into their heavily-anticipated matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Tigers were ranked 13th in the country, with their opponents being the consensus number-one team in all of college football. It was the biggest game of the season, and Ed Orgeron’s team had a great opportunity to move up with a win.

Well, the Tigers didn’t come out with the win, but they played Nick Saban’s team better than anyone had all year long. It was a smash mouth, defensive battle that remained scoreless well into the fourth quarter of play. Alabama won 10-0, but the messages was clear: under new leadership, LSU is one of the best teams in college football.

Nobody expected the Tigers to move up after the loss, but with their impressive showing, a steep drop was almost even more unlikely. That was the consensus thought, at least.

The playoff committee didn’t seem to agree with the majority of people, as they dropped the team ELEVEN SPOTS in their updated rankings. After playing the best team in college football down to the very end, they thought the correct decision was to drop LSU from 13th to 24th in the standings.

Fast forward to now. On Saturday, the number four Washington Huskies lost to USC, number three Michigan fell to Iowa, and number two Clemson lost to Pitt. Where did those teams wind up in the new rankings? Number six, three, and four.

I don’t know about you, but in my mind, none of the teams that took down Washington, Michigan, and Pitt even compare to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Yet, losing close to those teams drops you one or two spots, while a close loss to the top-ranked team in the nation causes you to plummet 11 spots.

Either the committee is sending some sort of message I’m not picking up on, or they are just downright incompetent with no set way of doing things as they rank teams. Regardless of why it happened, the LSU Tigers got screwed by the committee. The team was out of the playoff picture after losing to the Crimson Tide, but the constant changes in the standards of the committee caused them to drop an obscene amount of spots. There’s no other way to put it, LSU got screwed.