Gary Barta explains committee's thought process on avoiding rematches

College Football Playoff selection committee chair Gary Barta said that rematches are not something taken into consideration in the final rankings. The top four teams in the final CFP rankings were revealed Sunday on ESPN.

After Alabama and Georgia played each other in the SEC Championship, the the two will not meet again in the Playoff semifinals. Instead, the Crimson Tide take on Cincinnati and the Bulldogs get Big Ten champ Michigan. They could meet in the championship should they win their semifinal matchups.

After the rankings were made public, Barta offered a bit of clarity on the committee’s thought process.

“We come into the room and we line up the teams,” he said. “We talk about their strengths and weaknesses and then the (conference) championships. Then we rank them. We don’t look at matchups. We just look at No. 1, 2, 3 and 4.”

Barta also explained why the committee included the Bearcats at No. 4. Cincinnati defeated Houston in the AAC Championship to stay undefeated and become the first Group of 5 school to make the Playoff since its inception in 2014.

“Cincinnati is the last remaining undefeated team in the country. They just won a conference championship. Early in the year, we talked about how they beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame. The committee had a strong consensus that Cincinnati comes in at No. 4.”

Cincinnati’s inclusion in the Playoff is a monumental moment for the little guy, showing that it is possible. In 2017, fellow AAC team UCF finished its season undefeated but was left out of the Playoff. The Knights won the Peach Bowl and declared themselves the unofficial national champs. They again finished 12-0 the following year and were left out, but this time lost in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Bearcats won’t have to go through the trouble of announcing themselves champions. Instead, they will get the opportunity to prove themselves worthy.

Both semifinal contests are set to take place on New Year’s Eve, though the times have yet to be announced. With Gary Barta confirming the committee doesn’t take rematches into account, we’ll await a potential Bama-Georgia national championship on Jan. 10.