Projected 2020 College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings for Week 14

Marshall was sidelined by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at Charlotte in Week 12, and they had an idle week already scheduled in Week 13. That left the Thundering Herd out of sight and out of mind right as the College Football Playoff selection committee sat down to deliberate over their first two sets of rankings. Considered a top-16 team by the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll, Marshall was shunted down to No. 21 in the initial hierarchy laid out by the committee.

There isn’t much that Doc Holliday’s crew can do to change that perception. Rice and Florida International — teams that sported a combined 1-7 record ahead of Week 13 play — are all that remain on Marshall’s slate, offering no boost whatsoever in terms of schedule strength. They do boast a win over Appalachian State, but with the Mountaineers out of the running to defend the Sun Belt crown that win has been and will continue to be undervalued by the committee.

Much like they went unrewarded for a perfect season in 1999 by the BCS, and were passed over in 2014 for the Group of Five’s automatic New Year’s Six bid by a Boise State team with more losses, Marshall will probably end the year unrewarded for their excellence. On the 50th anniversary of the plane crash in Huntington, though, the Thundering Herd have shown their best selves time and again this season.