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The initial College Football Playoff Rankings were released last night. Depending on your particular rooting interest or conference bias, the rankings are predictably awful or look exactly the way Jobu intended. Why the divided opinions about the rankings? Because a single conference placed three teams into the Top 4. I'll give you negative 1 guesses who that conference is.
| Rank | Team | Conference | Toughest opponent left (per F/+) | If the season ended today ... |
| 1 | Mississippi State | SEC | Ole Miss | Sugar Bowl vs. Ole Miss |
| 2 | Florida State | ACC | Louisville | Rose Bowl vs. Auburn |
| 3 | Auburn | SEC | Ole Miss | Rose Bowl vs. Florida State |
| 4 | Ole Miss | SEC | Auburn | Sugar Bowl vs. Mississippi State |
| 5 | Oregon | Pac-12 | Stanford | New Year's bowl |
| 6 | Alabama | SEC | Auburn | Orange Bowl* |
| 7 | TCU | Big 12 | Kansas State | New Year's bowl |
| 8 | Michigan State | Big Ten | Ohio State | New Year's bowl |
| 9 | Kansas State | Big 12 | TCU | New Year's bowl |
| 10 | Notre Dame | Independent | Louisville | New Year's bowl |
| 11 | Georgia | SEC | Auburn | |
| 12 | Arizona | Pac-12 | Arizona State | |
| 13 | Baylor | Big 12 | Oklahoma | |
| 14 | Arizona State | Pac-12 | Notre Dame | |
| 15 | Nebraska | Big Ten | Wisconsin | |
| 16 | Ohio State | Big Ten | Michigan State | |
| 17 | Utah | Pac-12 | Oregon | |
| 18 | Oklahoma | Big 12 | Baylor | |
| 19 | LSU | SEC | Alabama | |
| 20 | West Virginia | Big 12 | TCU | |
| 21 | Clemson | ACC | Georgia Tech | Orange Bowl* |
| 22 | UCLA | Pac-12 | Stanford | |
| 23 | East Carolina | American | UCF | New Year's bowl* |
| 24 | Duke | ACC | Virginia Tech | |
| 25 | Louisville | ACC | Florida State |
ESS EEE CEE! ESS EEE CEE!
Valid, not valid, whatever. Let's get to the part where Minnesota has a role in this 3 ring circus. Notice anything special about the Top 10?
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/waves at Frogs O' War
You might not believe it, but despite the Thing That Happened In Central Illinois last weekend, Minnesota is still considered a good win for TCU:
1. Scheduling tough OOC matters
...On the other side of the coin, there's Baylor. The Bears have a prolific offense, a win over No. 7 TCU and a lone loss at No. 20 West Virginia. And yet, the Bears are ranked 13th. Why? Their out-of-conference competition: SMU, Northwestern State, and Buffalo. That's two low-end non-power teams and an FCS team, with a combined record of 7-16. It's a lineup that's killing the Bears right now.
Compare them to TCU, a similar conference foe. Baylor won that matchup, but the Horned Frogs have a win over Minnesota, a 6-2 team out of the Big Ten, and they're six spots ahead of the Bears.
That's right. Our friends at the Mothership are listing TCU's win over Minnesota as one of the key reasons they are several spots ahead of Baylor. Are the Gophers a great team? We know that's not true. But to outsiders they are clearly still a team worth paying attention to, despite the recent loss.
Keep Your Head Up
Keep Your Head Up
Is this as good as actually being on the waaaaaaaaaay tail end of the CFB Playoff discussion like Duke? Nope. Does this in any way make up for the disappointment of losing to a Timmy B. coached team? Nuh uh. Does this move the Iowa kickoff to 2:30 pm? Not even close.
What this should do is give everyone another chance to take stock and reflect on what GN was saying yesterday. The book is not written on this season. The Gophers have a chance to keep being a quality non-con win for TCU, which would coincidentally mean they would be making us all happy and positioning themselves for a decent bowl game while (ideally) continuing to fill their trophy case. So let's enjoy the bye week, cheer for TCU, and start stoking the HATE fires in preparation for 11/8.