How close is Indiana to No. 1 in country?: 'Really clear consensus in the room' for Ohio State at the top

The updated College Football Playoff rankings were revealed on Tuesday night and had Indiana football at No. 2, one spot behind Ohio State — no movement from the initial rankings.

Oregon was the other Big Ten team to make the initial 12-team playoff bracket, slotting in at No. 8.

The top four seeds receive a first round bye before playing in the quarterfinals — and would play the winner of No. 7 Ole Miss and No. 10 Texas.

Indiana and Ohio State both remain unbeaten, as does Texas A&M — the No. 3 seed. But, Indiana needed a last minute drive on Saturday at Penn State to take down the Nittany Lions.

The Hoosiers and Buckeyes are on a collision course to face off in the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis.

What are some of the factors under consideration when seeding the teams? How did Indiana match up with Ohio State and Texas A&M? CFP chairman Mack Rhoades broke it down.

Q.  Just curious if you could talk a little bit more on the discussion between Indiana’s win at Penn State and the ranked A&M win at Missouri and kind of what the discussions were between those two games?

MACK RHOADES: So certainly discussion about those two games, but also discussion about body of work when we think about both of those teams.

We looked at Indiana’s win at Oregon, Indiana’s win at Iowa, A&M’s win certainly in South Bend, their most recent win against Missouri. Indiana, obviously their win against Penn State.

Conversation about Missouri, Missouri a really good team but probably not the team that they’ve been. They’re starting their third quarterback, a true freshman. That’s a really tough spot for that young man.

When you look at both of these teams, they’re really close. They’re really close defensively. Give Indiana the edge. And they’re really close offensively. Certainly gave Indiana the slight edge there. Indiana finding a way to win Fernando Mendoza, the second rated quarterback in passing efficiency. Those were all conversations.

But again, that was the second longest discussion in the room. Two really, really good teams, really, really close.

Q.  Regarding conference championship game losers, how much can losing a championship game hurt a team in the rankings, and can it be beneficial for a team to miss out on their championship game? Just curious how the committee views that.

MACK RHOADES: Yeah, for the committee, we look at it as a positive if you’re playing in the championship game. It’s another datapoint. It’s certainly recognized when we think about record strength. Obviously you win it, that’s a plus. If you lose it, theoretically it’s not supposed to hurt you.

Could it hurt you? If it was a game where it wasn’t competitive and you completely got blown away, then that would be a conversation, candidly, in the room amongst the committee.

Q.  I was just wondering, when you’re looking at Texas A&M and Indiana and you look at the schedule because you mentioned how they performed in some of their earlier games, did the fact that A&M played three consecutive road games in a four-week period, so they were away from — they didn’t have a home game for a month, was that a point of discussion at all? Was that a topic of discussion at all?

MACK RHOADES: As I reflect back on just the conversation of the body of work, I do believe that it came up in terms of just the number of consecutive road games when we talked about A&M.

Q.  When you look at the metrics, across the board it seems like Texas A&M has the higher strength of schedule and strength of record. Is there something separating Indiana and Ohio State where the metrics wouldn’t come in and put A&M over the top?

MACK RHOADES: Again, when we look at schedule strength and record strength, because you mentioned those two, again, just two of the metrics, those teams are very, very close. I mean, extremely, extremely close. When we look at those two, again, defensively, Indiana, we give them the edge over A&M. We give Indiana certainly the edge — offensively they’re the top scoring offense in the country. Their defense is ranked second.

Again, those are two teams, as I mentioned, the longest discussion, Texas Tech, Ole Miss. The second longest discussion was Indiana and Texas A&M.

You asked about Ohio State and Indiana. Again, the committee, really clear consensus in the room. Ohio State, the No. 1 team in the country. Felt like the most complete team. Really good defensively, particularly up front. Offensively, again, really good. Their offensive line play is outstanding. They have the great playmakers in Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. The quarterback Sayin right now leads the country in passing efficiency and completion percentage.

Those are all reasons why Ohio State, again, clear consensus for the committee for them to remain at No. 1. I apologize I didn’t get them initially.

Not yet a member of TheHoosier?  Join our community for Just $1 for your first week and get a complimentary year of The Athletic included with your membership. Join here!

Use the code “IND20” on Rhoback.com for a generous 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week. Rhoback — Best Fit, Best Feel.