Auburn Football: 3 reasons Tigers have earned No. 2 spot in CFB Playoff

Auburn football beat No. 1 Alabama last week to improve to 10-2 on the season and the Tigers have earned the No. 2 spot in the playoff rankings.

The Week 14 College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night and controversy ensued as a two-loss Auburn team jumped from No. 6 all the way to No. 2 after beating Alabama in Week 13.

Sure, the win was the best of the season, outside of maybe a 40-17 victory over No. 1 Georgia, but was it enough to have the Tigers jump an unbeaten Wisconsin team, red-hot Oklahoma and both the Crimson Tide and Miami Hurricanes?

Here’s why the Tigers deserved that No. 2 spot in the Week 14 College Football Playoff rankings despite having two losses.

3. Quality losses

I know how crazy this sounds. What exactly is a “quality loss”? If you look at Auburn’s schedule, there isn’t a “bad loss” in sight and that’s a big deal. You look at teams like Ohio State, Miami, Clemson and Oklahoma, all teams in the hunt for a playoff spot, and each has an ugly loss to their names.

Ohio State lost by 21 points to an average Iowa team on the road, Miami lost to a 5-7 Pitt team away from home, Clemson lost to Syracuse and Oklahoma lost at home to Iowa State. The latter isn’t exactly a bad win since the Cyclones have been better than expected, but it happened at home.

As for Auburn, the two losses to the Tigers’ name haven’t been damaging to their overall body of work. In Week 2, they lost by eight points on the road to the Clemson Tigers who are now ranked No. 1 and in Week 7, the Tigers lost to LSU on the road by just four points — LSU is now No. 17 in the playoff poll.

Auburn has quality wins and good losses (if there is such a thing). You look at the Tigers’ resume and there may not be anyone with a better track record this year.