ATHENS – The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2021 season hadn’t yet been released Tuesday night when Georgia coach Kirby Smart was asked about them after practice. But like everybody else, Smart knew where the Bulldogs were going to be posted, and he already had addressed it with his team.
Indeed, Georgia – the nation’s consensus No. 1 team for the past four weeks in the two opinion polls – was picked No. 1 by the CFP’s selection committee, which waits until the first week of November every year to begin ranking the teams that will contend for the final four spots that will make up the semifinals after the conference championships are completed the first Saturday in December.
Following the Bulldogs were No. 2 Alabama (7-1), No. 3 Michigan State (8-0) and No. 4 Oregon (7-1).
What does all that mean at this point in the season? Smart answered that question with a question.
“Well, they’ve had this night seven times. I would dare y’all to know how many of those seven won the national championship? Anybody got an answer? Take a guess?”
The answer is that only one of the teams posted as No. 1 in the initial playoff rankings have gone on to win the national championship. The Bulldogs actually were No. 1 for the first two weeks of the 2017 rankings but fell to No. 3 before the semifinals and were No. 2 in the final list after losing to Alabama in the national championship game.
Smart shared that data with his current team, which is a 37.5-point favorite for Saturday’s home game against Missouri (4-4, 1-3 SEC).
“Why did only one of the seven make it? It’s pretty easy,” Smart said Tuesday. “It either went to their head, it affected them or they didn’t continue to grow and get better.”
Smart’s players who were asked about it this week clearly were heeding Smart’s warnings. Only redshirt freshman cornerback Kelee Ringo was available after the initial playoff rankings were revealed on ESPN’s show Tuesday night.
Not surprisingly, he didn’t watch.
“It’s a great feeling, to be honest,” Ringo said being ranked No. 1. “But I feel like it’s we’re just going to continue to come out every single day like we’re in last place in college football. That’s what’s going to help us continue to go in the direction we’ve been going.”
While Georgia has clinched a spot in the SEC Championship game as the Eastern Division champion, it still has four games to negotiate before meeting a still to be determined opponent from the West. That likely will be No. 2 Alabama or No. 13 Auburn (6-2).
Smart emphasized the importance of focusing only on whomever the Bulldogs are playing each week and ignoring completely what has been a growing national adulation of his team.
“We’ve got some tough roads coming down the pike, starting this week and every week to follow in the SEC,” Smart said. “That’s our concern. Not (the rankings). Don’t worry about that. I told them they can tune in to watch the Braves. But there’s no need to watch the (rankings show) because that’s not what’s important. It’s distorted at least six other teams minds enough for them to make it there.”
The only real surprises Tuesday night were Cincinnati being left out of the top four and undefeated Oklahoma (9-0) being ranked eighth. The undefeated Bearcats (8-0) of the American Athletic Conference are No. 2 in both the Associated Press writers’ and the USA Today coaches’ polls. The committee placed Cincinnati at No. 6.
The rest of the first top 10 No. 5 Ohio State (7-1), No. 7 Michigan (7-1), No. 9 Wake Forest (8-0) and No. 10 Notre Dame (7-1).
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