CFP committee explains Oregon Ducks' place over Oklahoma Sooners in latest CFP ranking

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On Tuesday night, when the newest batch of College Football Playoff rankings was released, there was some real intrigue for Oregon Ducks fans. While their team took care of business with a dominant win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Week 12, some speculation grew as to whether or not they would be jumped in the rankings, notably by the Oklahoma Sooners, who upset the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday night.

Oregon still has a better record than the Sooners, but with wins over No. 4 Alabama, No. 14 Tennessee, and No. 15 Michigan, would the committee put some more respect on the Sooners?

Apparently not. In the ranking, Oregon moved up a spot to No. 7, while Oklahoma jumped from No. 11 to No. 8. Meanwhile, Alabama fell from No. 4 to No. 10. While this may have been expected for Oregon fans who are happy to see the Ducks get some respect nationally, there is certainly a large faction of the college football world who is frustrated by Oregon’s standings, particularly because their weak strength of record.

Here’s how the College Football Playoff committee Chair Hunter Yuracheck, the Arkansas AD, explained it on Tuesday night.

In essence, the Ducks are still getting a lot of credit for beating a No. 2-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions team on the road in Week 5, which was one of the biggest wins of Dan Lanning’s career at the time. While Penn State has since fallen off, fired their coach, and lost their starting QB for the season to injury, the fact is the Ducks still beat them while they were at full strength, which the committee is giving weight to.

Outside of that, Oregon’s best win comes against the Iowa Hawkeyes, who were ranked No. 20 at the time of the game, but have since fallen out of the rankings after back-to-back losses to the Ducks and the USC Trojans.

Now, Oregon gets another chance to prove itself, this time against No. 15 USC, which comes to town on Saturday. Of course, if the Ducks beat them, and they fall out of the rankings, then once again we are back where we started with Oregon getting no respect.

This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: CFP chair explains Oregon Ducks’ CFP ranking over Oklahoma Sooners

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