Georgia football is the new No. 1 team in the country according to the AP Poll. ESPN however still doesn’t think they deserve the No. 1 ranking as they somehow awarded that honor to Notre Dame in their Football Power Index (FPI) rankings.
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Two things happened on Saturday that led the AP Poll voters to move Georgia up to No. 1. The Bulldogs 42-7 win over No. 10 Ole Miss certainly helped validate this new ranking, but if it wasn’t for Miami’s first loss of the season they wouldn’t have been moved up to No. 1 on Sunday.
Notre Dame to be fair was the team to beat Miami, who was previously ranked No. 1, but their resume still isn’t strong enough to be ranked No. 1 over Georgia.
Notre Dame’s resume isn’t even close to Georgia
Notre Dame’s win over Miami on Saturday is one of the best wins in the country. That victory however isn’t as good as Georgia’s win over Alabama. Georgia not only beat Alabama on the road while Notre Dame beat Miami at home, but the Tide will likely be ranked higher than Miami when the new playoff rankings come out on Tuesday. So Georgia has the slightly better win.
Notre Dame has the advantage when comparing each teams loss though. The Irish lost to a two-loss BYU team on the road while Georgia lost to a 5-4 Auburn team at home. The Bulldogs resume overall though is still far better because Notre Dame doesn’t have another good win this season.
Georgia’s win over Alabama and Notre Dame’s win over Miami are comparable, but Georgia has three wins that are easily better than Notre Dame’s next best win. Their victories over Oklahoma, Florida and Ole Miss trump any other win the Irish have, and potential wins over Missouri and South Carolina these next two weeks would be better than any victory Notre Dame has as well.
The data makes it pretty clear that Georgia deserves to be ranked No. 1 over Notre Dame. Thankfully the AP Poll got it right and the CFP committee has a chance to make the right decision as well.
The AP Poll got it right, and so too will the CFP rankings
In the first edition of the CFP rankings Georgia was No. 2 and Notre Dame was No. 11. The Irish deserve to jump much higher after beating Miami, but moving up 10 spots to No. 1 isn’t likely.
Georgia moving up to No. 1 after dismantling Ole Miss by 35 points is extremely realistic.
At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what any ranking says about Georgia. The Bulldogs are 8-1 and have some of the best wins in the country, and as long as they keep winning they’ll get to play for an SEC Championship and will make the College Football Playoff.
It still is nice to be given the respect they deserve though, so hopefully the CFP committee does the right thing and ranks Georgia No. 1 on Tuesday just like the AP Poll did.
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