There was a bit of an uproar on social media this past weekend when the AP Top-25 rankings were released.
As we inch closer to the first College Football Playoff rankings being revealed, the AP Top-25 begins to be looked at under a microscope. Though the rankings have no bearing on the College Football Playoff directly, everyone knows that the storylines and narratives that come from the AP Top-25 make their way into the committee room as they craft their rankings.
Here's a look at three teams that have seemingly gotten a "pass" in the most recent edition of the AP Top-25.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were propelled four spots — tied for the biggest jump with Texas A&M — for blowing out Navy 51-10 on Saturday.
The Fighting Irish now hold a win over Texas A&M — now ranked No. 10 —and they are being bolstered up because of that recent victory against Navy that some didn't expect, but that's because of incorrect narratives that were spun all of last week.
It was a magical story to see Navy undefeated, but no one who has watched them play this year should've believed that they had the athletes to beat Notre Dame in a rivalry game, and we said as much coming into the game. This is especially true when you continuously turn the ball over the way Navy did. This isn't at all to discredit Navy because they still have a chance to have a great season and compete for the AAC championship, but that Top-25 ranking was a bit of a stretch, wouldn't you say?
Notre Dame is a very good 7-1 team with a quality win over Texas A&M, but the Fighting Irish also have the worst loss of any team inside the Top-15, to a 4-4 Northern Illinois team. With this ranking, the AP has essentially decided to overlook that.
Ohio State's lone loss of the season is to the No. 1-ranked Oregon Ducks on the road. However, what wins do the Buckeyes have? They have exactly zero wins against any ranked opponents, and they nearly lost to Nebraska this past weekend at home with two weeks to prepare.
It's pretty crazy to think that AP voters elected to drop to Texas a spot for winning a close one at Vanderbilt — which was a ranked team coming into the game — but hold Ohio State steady at No. 4 in the nation.
There's no doubting that the Buckeyes have talent, but their resume is fraudulent so far. It's not to say that things can't turn around, as they'll have a chance to pick up a win over No. 3-ranked Penn State this weekend on the road, but there's nothing right now that indicates Ohio State should be ahead of Miami, Texas, BYU, or even conference foe Indiana if you're just looking at resume.
However, for some reason, the Buckeyes get a pass in the AP voters' eyes while teams like Iowa State, Indiana, BYU, Miami, and others get placed behind them, really without any warrant.
Again, things can change quickly and Ohio State will have a chance to right the ship this weekend, but a "quality loss" should never be held more valuable than actually winning games.
LSU went on the road to Kyle Field on Saturday night and led at halftime. Then, the Tigers fell apart and suffered their second loss of the season.
For some reason, though, the "quality loss" metric somehow still keeps LSU at No. 16. The Tigers were ranked inside the Top-10 heading into Saturday night, so you can say that there's no way that they should drop any more spots than what they already did. However, what on LSU's resume warrants the Tigers being ranked ahead of Kansas State or Pittsburgh? You might could even make the case for Army or SMU.
Those teams all possess better records and, if you want to look at metrics, Pittsburgh and Kansas State have better strength of records than LSU at this point.
LSU gets the benefit of the doubt because the Tigers started out inside the Top-15, but there's been nothing all that impressive with how they've played so far to warrant them being ahead of a whole host of teams with better records and metrics than them. At 6-2, there's no doubt that LSU should still be ranked, but likely around 19-20, rather than No. 16.
The Tigers will have a chance next Saturday, November 9 to vault themselves right back into the conversation if they can knock off Alabama at home.