Georgia Football: College Football Playoff rankings, CBS said what?

Georgia football opens on the College Football Playoff ranking at No. 9.

The first College Football Playoff rankings have been released and Georgia football finds themselves higher on it than on that Associated Press poll for this week. Georgia is sitting at No. 9 and some do not seem to think that is where they belong. In fact, some have gone as far as to call them overrated.

Georgia football has losses to both Alabama and Florida, who are No. 1 and No. 6 respectively. Texas A&M is also ranked ahead of Georgia at No. 5. It’s hard to argue against the two teams that beat Georgia and the team that beat Florida being ranked ahead of the Bulldogs. However, Cincinnati being in the top ten is a head-scratcher. They are undefeated, but they don’t have a ranked win.

Even though Cincinnati is ranked in the top ten without a win against a ranked team, and Georgia has a win over No. 22 Auburn, Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports thinks Georgia football is overrated.

Here is what Sallee had to say:

"No. 9 Georgia — OverratedI’m sorry, did I miss the part of the season when Georgia (5-2) developed a coherent, consistent offense? Sure, JT Daniels was phenomenal under center last week against Mississippi State. But that was his first game for a Bulldogs team that had massive problems in the passing game prior to Mike Leach and Co. rolling into town.The selection committee factors in players who are out due to injury or, in the case of this season, COVID-19. The absence of safety Richard LeCounte and several other starters on defense has hurt the Bulldogs, which has certainly played a part in some less-than-stellar defensive performances lately.Plus, what’s Georgia’s best win? The home win over No. 22 Auburn in the second week of the SEC season. That’s nice. It’s also the only win that the Bulldogs have over a team with a winning record.All of those factors combined make it hard to buy into Georgia being a top 10 team."

Sallee attacks Georgia football for not having more than one win against a team with a winning record, but he has no problem with teams being ranked top ten that don’t have a win against a ranked opponent stating that BYU is underrated. In fact, he did everything he could to make excuses for their schedule.

"No. 14 BYU — UnderrratedCollege Football Playoff selection committee chair Gary Barta said after the rankings were revealed that BYU’s strength of schedule played a part in the undefeated Cougars (9-0) being ranked so low. My question is this … what do you expect BYU to do? Its schedule got absolutely decimated by the COVID-19 schedule shuffle,  and it did all that it could to piece together something that is attractive based on the available options."

This is some very inconsistent journalism on Sallee’s part. He has no problem with Northwestern and Cincinnati being ranked in the top ten without a quality win, and even trips over himself to excuse BYU’s lack of quality opponents, all while calling Georgia football overrated because of a few injuries and the fact that their, now starting quarterback Daniels, wasn’t previously ready.

All in all, you can make a decent argument that Georgia football deserves to be put in the top ten of the College Football Playoff rankings based on their body of work compared to the body of work of those also in the top ten. You could even compare and make the argument that some of the teams ranked above them shouldn’t be. However, what you can’t do is call out a team whose best win was against a top 25 team while giving other teams without a quality win a pass.

However, this is a practice in journalism that we see all too often.