Hello everyone!! The initial CFB playoff rankings will be announced in a little over a hour. While we wait, I decided to break out the old clustering algorithm to get a sense of where the teams that will be ranked stack up. These tiers are based solely on teams with 0-2 losses on the season.
The top 4 will be some variation of the first two tiers. After that, we have to see where the Pac-12 lands in the rankings, which will give us an idea on if the committee will consider any of the one loss Pac-12 teams (UCLA, USC, Oregon) for the final 4. The final thing we should look for is who is ranked the highest among the Group of 5. Tulane will most likely get the nod for now, but the Citronauts and #OurChanticleers might not be that far behind.
If you want to get a sense of what powers the tiers, here are the averages among some of the stats used:
As you can see, the majority of the time the playoff will be comprised of the top two tiers. The third tier has an outside shot of busting into the playoff, but defense is holding those teams back. As we continue on into November, we can update this as teams begin to drop out to see where we stand in terms of the playoff, New Years Six Bowls, and our G5 champion. Hope you all have a good rest of your day!
Let’s go, ‘Nauts!!!