Where Will Oklahoma State be Ranked in Tuesday’s CFB Playoff Rankings?

I’m sure all of this will be reasonable and go perfectly, right?

The second CFB Playoff ranking of 2015 will be released on Tuesday night and Oklahoma State will be a much bigger factor than last week when it was ranked No. 14.

One thing I want to address before we get to where OSU could be ranked. The powers that be in college football (i.e. ESPN) are sort of brilliant for creating this madness. Think about it, we are watching a television show in the middle of November that tells us how good or bad our team is and we all care and become really emotional thereafter.

That’s pretty hilarious.

College football has figured out how to let the games be decided on the field and yet keeps the buzz created as if they aren’t. If the sport went to a simple “win your conference and you’re in” formula, it would just be a worse version of the NFL. So as much as I hate it, I also love it.

Anyway, where will OSU be ranked?

Let’s look at the top 15 from last week and what they did on Saturday.

1. Clemson (beat FSU at home)
2. LSU (lost at Alabama)
3. Ohio State (beat Minnesota at home)
4. Alabama (beat LSU at home)
5. Notre Dame (won at Pittsburgh)
6. Baylor (won at Kansas State)
7. Michigan State (lost at Nebraska)
8. TCU (lost at Oklahoma State)
9. Iowa (won at Indiana)
10. Florida (beat Vandy at home)
11. Stanford (won at Colorado)
12. Utah (won at Washington)
13. Memphis (lost at home to Navy)
14. Oklahoma State (beat TCU)
15. Oklahoma (beat Iowa State)

I’ve been housing the selection committee for being a power ranking organization rather than a resume evaluation organization, but it turns out, a power ranking organization is exactly what they are. Here’s their mission statement as it relates to selection the College Football Playoff per their website.

The committee’s task will be to select the best teams, rank the teams for inclusion in the playoff and selected other bowl games and then assign the teams to sites.

So why even play the games? Just say, “well, we think Ohio State, Alabama, LSU and USC are the best teams this year, let’s just skip ahead to the playoff.” I digress, though.

Last week, selection committee chairman Jeff Long basically said the Big 12 doesn’t play any defense.

“I think it’s the balance of the team. We have teams that are just one-sided offensive teams or one-sided, really strong defensive teams. That combination of offense and defense. How they’ve played offensively and defensively in those games. Sometimes that’s the hardest thing to judge…”

Well, the committee is going to have an issue now. Because TCU could only muster 29 on OSU on Saturday. The first time it had been held under 30 since the first game and the first time in conference play since 2013. This is the same TCU that hung 42 on precious Ole Miss in its bowl game last season. Also, there’s this.

The OSU defense is holding opponents well below their points/drive average: pic.twitter.com/03GENd0ShY

— Oklahoma State Stats (@OSUStats) November 8, 2015

Long also promised us that the schedule would show out which teams in the Big 12 were good.

“These teams, TCU and Baylor in particular, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma to a lesser degree, they have their strength of schedule in front of them. We rank to this point in time, and those teams just haven’t played their strong teams yet. We’ll see how they stack up as we get closer to the end of the season.”

So how high does OSU jump? I think this is what the top 10 will look like.

1. Clemson (and it’s deserved)
2. Alabama (and I guess it’s deserved)
3. Ohio State (and it’s not deserved … at all)
4. Notre Dame (at Pitt is a good win)
5. Baylor (at KSU is a good win)
6. LSU (this is going to sting, isn’t it?)
7. Oklahoma State (TCU is the second-best win of any team all year — the following tweet was sent before the Bama-LSU game)

There is only one team in college football with a win over an A.P. top five opponent this year. That team is #okstate

— Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) November 8, 2015

8. Iowa (at Indiana is a fine win, nothing to get excited about)
9. Stanford (at Colorado is fine)
10. Florida (squeaking by Vandy at home is not impressive but wins are wins)

So there you go. Oklahoma State is going to be behind three (!) one-loss teams when the rankings come out tonight. I’m forewarning you given that this is a power ranking and not a resume evaluation. And if top four win out, that will be your playoff (even if a Big 12 team goes 12-0). How crazy would that be?

Be prepared to be disappointed.