On Tuesday Night, the College Football Playoff committee unveiled its latest rankings after all of the chaos we saw in Week 11. When the committee unveiled its first set of rankings, everything made sense for the most part, but one team seemed ranked oddly high. Despite having two losses, the Utah Utes debuted as the 13th-ranked team in the College Football Playoff Top 25.
At the time, the ranking was puzzling as Utah ranked ahead of 1-loss teams in Virginia, Louisville, and Georgia Tech, which makes more sense now as the Cavaliers and Cardinals lost.
While at 7-2 on the season, Utah's certainly a good football team, but saying they're the 13th ranked team in the country is hard to believe. The Utes have played three ranked teams this season, going 1-2 with losses against Texas Tech and BYU and a win over 25th ranked Cincinnati.
The committees love for the Utah Utes likely stems from where they rank in some of the advanced metrics. The Utes rank 19th in strength of record, 9th in the Football Power Index, 11th in game control, and 7th in average in-game win probability.
Given that the Utes are ranked 13th, they're not currently in the College Football Playoff picture, but they'll have plenty of chances to get in the Playoff. The final 3 games come against Baylor, Kansas State, and Kansas, which gives them a great chance to end the season with 3 more wins.
While Utah plays an easier schedule, a few of the teams ahead of them have tougher stretches, which may allow Utah to pass them. This weekend, Texas which is ranked 10th could fall out with a loss to Georgia, and Oklahoma is ranked 11th and has to play Alabama this weekend.
The committee has set Utah up perfectly to make the College Football Playoff, the question is now whether or not they'll take advantage.
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