Five SEC Teams In The Playoff Top 10 — And The Big Ten Is Crying ESPN

The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, released Tuesday, put Miami (8-0) at No. 1, followed by Georgia (7-1), Utah (8-0), Indiana (8-1) and Alabama (6-2), with Kentucky (7-1), Texas (6-2), UCLA (8-0), BYU (7-1) and Ole Miss (6-2) completing the top 10, Notre Dame (7-1) at No. 11 and Ohio State (6-2) at No. 12. Five of the top 10 play in the SEC; two play in the Big Ten. Three two-loss SEC teams sit in the top 10 while no two-loss Big Ten team does — and by Wednesday, the Big Ten’s coaches were saying out loud what their fans say every November: that the rankings follow the television money.

Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, whose 8-1 Hoosiers are the Big Ten’s highest team at No. 4, made the case on his radio show: “SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN, you know, and all their writers that they don’t technically pay but march to their drum. That’s why you see all these SEC teams up there. There’s some good two-loss teams from the Big Ten not quite as high.” He added: “But like I said, it’s all gonna be played out on the field.” Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, speaking before the rankings came out, made the same point as a question: “They seem to promote the sports that they carry. Is that correct? I’m figuring that out.” Ferentz also suggested ESPN had downplayed the World Series because it aired on Fox. The structural facts behind the charge are not disputed: the rankings show airs on ESPN, the SEC’s television contract is with ESPN, and the Big Ten’s is with Fox. Neither ESPN nor the committee answered the bias charge directly. Committee chair Hunter Yurachek defended the ordering on its merits: Notre Dame, he said, is “a very good football team” that lacks “that signature win right now,” having “lost in their only top 25 matchup at BYU,” and Alabama’s place above Tennessee, which beat the Tide head-to-head, rests on head-to-head counting only between teams in the same four-team pod. “This has been such a crazy football season filled with unbelievable parity through the first eight weeks,” Yurachek said, predicting “a significant amount of movement” still to come. New rankings follow every Tuesday through December 1; the final 12-team field is announced Sunday, December 6.

The first chance for movement is Saturday, and it lost its best player on Wednesday. Miami’s star wide receiver Malachi Toney was injured in Wednesday’s practice. What the university itself has said is one sentence: “Malachi Toney sustained an injury during Wednesday’s practice and is currently undergoing further evaluation by the team’s medical staff.” Everything beyond that is reporting, and it is grim for the Hurricanes: ESPN reported, citing sources, that Toney has a high ankle sprain and will have surgery, with a typical recovery of at least four weeks and a return aimed at the playoff; other reports put the tightrope surgery on Thursday and described him as out indefinitely but not for the season, and a person with knowledge of the matter told the Associated Press the timeline “won’t be known until after surgery.” All the reporting agrees on the immediate fact: Toney will not play Saturday night, when No. 1 Miami goes to No. 11 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC) in the game the committee itself flagged as Notre Dame’s chance at a signature win. Toney’s last outing was seven catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns in Miami’s 38-35 win at North Carolina. The No. 1 team in the country now defends that ranking, on the road, without the receiver its offence runs through.

Sources: NCAA.com and IndyStar on the rankings and reaction; ESPN, On3, CBS Sports and the Associated Press on the Toney injury (sourced reporting; Miami’s statement via Field Level Media/Reuters).