It took 20 minutes for ESPN to unveil the newest Playoff rankings on Tuesday night, and there was one reason why: they spent 10 minutes talking about why USC should be higher.
Kirk Herbstreit, Danny Kanell, and David Pollack all expressed surprise at three-loss USC only being ranked as the No. 12 team in the nation. USC has won seven straight games, and many are impressed with what they have done recently under quarterback Sam Darnold. Those three ESPN analysts are among those saying that USC is "playing like one of the best teams in the country", and they considered that USC should have a shot at the Playoff.
However, Joey Galloway and Rece Davis were having no part of it, constantly bringing up that USC has three losses. That's a great point too: are the Playoff rankings supposed to be about who is playing great at the end of the season, or who has played the best throughout the entire season.
This really shouldn't be a debate: it should be about what you do throughout the entire season. Why play the games otherwise?
This shouldn't have been a debate, but with no changes in the Top 4, ESPN made it one anyways.
The full Playoff rankings:
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Michigan
4. Clemson
5. Washington
6. Wisconsin
7. Penn State
8. Oklahoma
9. Colorado
10. Oklahoma State
11. Louisville
12. USC
13. Auburn
14. Florida State
15. Florida
16. Nebraska
17. Tennessee
18. West Virginia
29. Boise State
20. Houston
21. Western Michigan
22. Utah
23. Washington State
24. Stanford
25. Navy
