ESPN college football analyst Joey Galloway said Tuesday night during the network's broadcast of the first 2021 College Football Playoff rankings that he feels strongly that the 8-0 Cincinnati Bearcats weren't ranked where they deserved to be.
"Let me be clear: That (No. 6 ranking) feels disrespectful to Cincinnati," Galloway said. "I mean they have a top-10 win on the road against a Notre Dame team. That feels disrespectful to me to have them at No. 6. Now not being in the top four, understandable somewhat - you could make some arguments. But Cincinnati's situation - where they're at right now, with what they have left - that might be their ceiling. I don't agree with that ranking. I don't agree that Alabama sitting at No. 2 is a foregone conclusion. If they play a close game against Georgia, how far they fall? We just watched Michigan not fall very far losing to No. 3 in Michigan State. ... Alabama has received more respect in this poll than I thought they would. ... Cincinnati's disrespected in this poll. That one spot (between Nos. 5 and 6) matters to Cincinnati. Every single spot - because we're talking about Cincinnati and how they have to look behind them. Because they need so much help to make a move as if the win against Notre Dame on the road doesn't mean anything. I think the committee is saying that style points do matter and those last two weeks matter."
CFP chairman Gary Barta discussed how the selection committee assessed UC's effort so far this season as it determined the Bearcats' ranking.
"I would say the committee has great respect for Cincinnati," Barta said. "The win at Notre Dame - clearly at Notre Dame - is a really impressive win. When you look at their schedule after that or who they played after that, who else did they beat? And so that was the other question. The committee has been watching games all year and most recently in the last two weeks - a 2-6 Navy team and then a 1-7 Tulane team with a freshman quarterback starting so ... very impressive win against Notre Dame - a lot of respect - but looking at the whole picture, we felt (No.) 6 was the right place for Cincinnati."
Reactions to UC's No. 6 CFP ranking
ESPN's Rece Davis asked Barta if UC's ceiling might be No. 6 if there's no chaos ahead of the Bearcats in the rankings - with no other American Athletic Conference teams ranked in the CFP Top 25.
"We don't talk about a ceiling at all," Barta replied. "Again you look at what's happened so far. We don't project ahead - I think most everybody knows that. We look at what's happened so far. And Cincinnati earned their way to the No. 6 spot being undefeated and with that big win at Notre Dame. We haven't talked at all about a ceiling so I'm not ready to say there's a ceiling."
Earlier in the show, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit encouraged UC fans to root for Georgia, and warned them to worry about teams like Oklahoma that trail them for now in the CFP rankings.
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