The initial College Football Playoff Rankings were revealed Tuesday night with Ohio State, LSU, Penn State and Alabama getting spots. But who was snubbed?
The initial reveal of the College Football Playoff Rankings isn’t the end of the world for teams who failed to make the top four, nor is it a shoo-in for the four teams that did make the cut. What the first rankings do provide, though, are some great talking points. Why did team X make it? Does team Y have enough on the back-end of their schedule to make a push? Can a one-loss Team Z get in with a conference championship? But what everybody wants to know at this point is who got snubbed. And that’s the list we’re going to deliver.
Let’s take a look at the brief history of the each initial College Football Playoff Rankings, though. Not a single No. 1 seed — from the show’s initial reveal each season — has gone on to win the CFP National Championship. That list includes Mississippi State (2014), Clemson (2015), Alabama (2016), Georgia (2017) and Alabama again (2018).
For those teams that didn’t quite make the top four tonight, there’s still hope. Only one team in five years has done it, though — Ohio State in 2014, the inaugural year of the CFP. In those initial rankings, the Buckeyes came in at No. 16. Every other winner was a part of the initial top four — Alabama (No. 4), Clemson (No. 2), Alabama (No. 2), and Clemson (No. 2). That second slot in the initial rankings seems to be a bit of a sweet spot, so good luck to the LSU Tigers.
There’s a ton of football yet to be played, with plenty of big games in the immediate future. But let’s take a look at the three teams who got snubbed in the initial 2019 College Football Playoff rankings.