Michigan football: The CFP Playoff rankings don’t matter right now

The College Football Playoff rankings don’t matter for Michigan football unless the Wolverines keep winning. 

Tuesday night, the second CFP Playoff rankings came out. The usual suspects were at the top of the list with #1 Georgia, #2 Alabama, #3 Oregon (who was a bit of a surprise after barely beating Stanford a few weeks ago), #4 OSU, #5 Cincinnati, but the debate really started at numbers six and seven with Michigan football and Michigan State both vying for the leg up.

As it turns out (and even I was a little surprised by this personally) Michigan took #6 spot over MSU, despite MSU beating Michigan less than two weeks ago. Michigan State (after losing to Purdue) fell behind Michigan, and dropped from their last ranking (#3) to #7.

I thought the rankings would be #1 Georgia, #2 Alabama, #3 OSU, #4 Oregon #5 Cincinnati, #6 MSU, and #7 Michigan. I digress though.

The rankings just don’t matter that much right now

While it’s great that the committee thinks so highly of Michigan football despite them losing to their rival MSU, none of these rankings matter right now. Michigan football fans are obviously going to celebrate this ranking, as Michigan was able to move up in the rankings, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.

Michigan and Jim Harbaugh have a job to do. They can’t afford to get sidetracked by seeing these rankings and just thinking that everything will fall into their laps.

No, they need to earn that ranking and hold on to it, because as we just saw with MSU, you can celebrate and be high and mighty one week, but fall back to earth the very next week with a loss.

I don’t really understand why MSU fans get so upset over seeing Michigan jump them in the rankings.

Yes, you would think that since Michigan State beat Michigan, that they would have the head-to-head ranking over them, but they lost to a three-loss team. Michigan hasn’t lost to a three-loss team, so that was the huge key here.

Literally, the only thing that matters moving forward is winning. If MSU wins their remaining games, it won’t matter about the rankings.

The same thing as Michigan for the most part. As long as they win all of their remaining games, the rankings shouldn’t even register in player’s and coaches minds.

That’s why getting mad at these things from a fan perspective is pointless. First of all, we don’t have any control over the players, the playcalls, etc. All we do is watch and observe. It’s the players that directly impact the football game. It’s the players that go out their, try to fight their butts off for a victory, and move on to next week.

Also, the playoff committee is made up of a bunch of people that determine the rankings. The rankings are subjective. Not everyone will agree with them, but it is what it is. Once the rankings come out, they are set for that week. People need to move on.

Secondly, if one of the teams loses, the CFP rankings no longer matter. No two-loss team is going to make the playoff anyways (maybe except for Alabama). The bickering and arguing and getting mad needs to stop. If the team wins, then there’s no need to get mad.

Michigan football needs to ignore the annoying MSU fans that complain about the rankings and just focus on their own football team. If they don’t beat PSU this weekend (which is the most important game of the season to-date), than all of this excitement over the ranking was for nothing.

Ultimately, there’s nothing anybody can do about the rankings except win football games. It’s really that simple.

If Michigan wins their remaining regular season football games, MSU fans will have nothing to complain and bicker about and Michigan can be on their merry way.  Same thing for MSU and their football team. It’s that simple.