Bobby Petrino on Louisville’s ranking: Guess we should’ve simply scored 80 on FSU

Football coaches react in one of two ways when asked about rankings: Either they lie about ignoring them or say something real. There are valid reasons for doing either, and both can be fine.

Here’s No. 7 Louisville’s Bobby Petrino, fresh off a 52-7 walloping of previously .500 Boston College (Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson added a casual seven touchdowns), when asked about his team ranking behind two other one-loss teams in the year’s first College Football Playoff rankings:

In his fuller comments, he lamented the fact that polling is often based on numbers and praised conference rival Clemson, the only team to which the Cardinals have lost.

(The tricky part: The committee says it doesn’t “incent” margin of victory. It considers how good a team looks, but is uncomfortable with raw point totals in some unspecified way.)

Louisville swatted the Noles, 63-20, in September, and since the committee made FSU its highest-ranked Week 10 three-loss team ever, you’d think that win would count for a lot, as would the close loss at Clemson.

The advanced stats agreed, as well:

Let’s take a look at some of my favorite computer ratings, beginning with my own rating:

S&P+: 3 Louisville, 5 Washington, 6 Ohio State, 16 Texas A&M

FEI: 4 Ohio State, 5 Washington, 7 Louisville, 9 Texas A&M

The Power Rank: 4 Washington, 5 Louisville, 7 Ohio State, 8 Texas A&M

Sagarin: 3 Ohio State, 5 Washington, 7 Louisville, 9 Texas A&M

Massey-Peabody: 3 Louisville, 6 Ohio State, 8 Washington, 14 Texas A&M

SRS: 3 Ohio State, 4 Washington, 7 Louisville, 9 Texas A&M

FPI: 3 Louisville, 5 Ohio State, 7 Washington, 9 Texas A&M

I tend to prefer ratings that have the capability of dialing into variables more complicated than points scored/allowed and “who’ve you played?” Most of the above look at per-play or per-drive variables and dial into what creates success. They aren’t going to punish you for losing to good teams, and they also aren’t going to over-reward you for beating bad ones.

Of those seven systems, six had Texas A&M last among these four teams.

No worries about the A&M part, though, as the Aggies lost to 4-5 Mississippi State on Saturday.

And none of this really matters all that much, since the Cardinals are very comfortably in range for a New Year’s Six bowl, or even a Playoff bid if total catastrophe strikes elsewhere.

But still. The committee just told Louisville it hasn’t done enough so far this year. Now we get to see what the response looks like for the rest of the season.