New College Football Playoff selection committee rankings come out every Tuesday night, starting with Halloween and culminating in Selection Sunday in December. Here’s a whole bunch of stuff about how this works.
What to know about 2017’s College Football Playoff rankings release schedule
It’s on ESPN/WatchESPN every Tuesday night until Selection Sunday.
Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images
What times and dates do committee rankings come out?
- Tuesday, Oct. 31, around 7:15 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Nov. 7, around 7:15 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Nov. 14, around 9:15 p.m. ET (due to basketball)
- Tuesday, Nov. 21, around 7:15 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Nov. 28, around 7:15 p.m. ET
- Sunday, Dec. 3, some time after 11 a.m. ET
What TV channel is the Playoff ranking released on?
ESPN. You can tune in a few minutes late and still catch the minutes-long top 25 reveal, or you can just click here to see them the second they’re out.
Where can I stream the Playoff rankings release?
How much do these rankings matter?
Both a little and a lot. The committee doesn’t keep teams in any particular order from week to week. Nothing is final until Selection Sunday, Dec. 3. That’s the day after conference championships games wrap up, and the ranking then is the one that determines who makes the four-team Playoff field. But for the sake of tracking where teams are in the race, these weekly releases are by far your best bet.
From Halloween onward, most media outlets — SB Nation included — will list a team’s Playoff ranking when introducing it. If someone’s No. 3 in the AP Poll and No. 2 in the Playoff ranking, that team will be known in most pages as No. 2, because it is.
How predictive are the early rankings of the final one?
There’s still a full month of games remaining, and some of the top teams are guaranteed to play each other between now and the end. The first Playoff ranking in 2016 featured Texas A&M at No. 4. The Aggies finished 8-5 with a Texas Bowl loss.
On the other hand, you don’t need to start high to finish high. In 2014, Ohio State was 16th in the first ranking. In 2015, Oklahoma was 15th. Both made the field.
What does my team need to do to actually make the Playoff?
The statistical indicators of Playoff teams in the past:
Really basic strength-of-schedule numbers for every Playoff contender so far
Team | Power 5 champ? | Losses | FBS opponents’ average wins | Ws minus Ls vs. pre-Playoff Top 25 | Ws minus Ls vs. pre-Playoff .500+ | Playoff rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 Alabama | Yes | 1 | 6.8 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| 2015 Clemson | Yes | 0 | 6.6 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| 2016 Alabama | Yes | 0 | 7.8 | 5 | 9 | 1 |
| 2014 Oregon | Yes | 1 | 6.6 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| 2015 Alabama | Yes | 1 | 8.3 | 2 | 9 | 2 |
| 2016 Clemson | Yes | 1 | 7.3 | 3 | 10 | 2 |
| 2014 Florida State | Yes | 0 | 6.5 | 3 | 9 | 3 |
| 2015 Michigan State | Yes | 1 | 6.9 | 4 | 8* | 3 |
| 2016 Ohio State | No | 1 | 7.1 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| 2014 Ohio State | Yes | 1 | 6.5 | 3 | 9 | 4 |
| 2015 Oklahoma | Yes | 1 | 6.4 | 4 | 8* | 4 |
| 2016 Washington | Yes | 1 | 6.2 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 2014 Baylor | Co | 1 | 6.1 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| 2015 Iowa | No | 1 | 6.5 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| 2016 Penn State | Yes | 2 | 6.6 | 1 | 7 | 5 |
| 2014 TCU | Co | 1 | 6.5 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| 2015 Stanford | Yes | 2 | 6.5 | 1 | 8 | 6 |
| 2015 Ohio State | No | 1 | 6.2 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| 2016 Oklahoma | Yes | 2 | 6.3 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Average No. 1 seed | 100% | 0.3 | 7.1 | 3.7 | 8.3 | - |
| Average Playoff | 92% | 0.8 | 6.9 | 3.1 | 8 | - |
| Playoff + bubble | 82% | 1 | 6.7 | 2.4 | 7.2 | - |
Basically, you should win a power conference, lose one game or fewer, beat at least three teams in the final top 25, and beat at least six teams who are .500 or better at that point. (But if you’re Notre Dame, you can get away with not winning a league.)
That’s how it works, more or less. Buckle up.
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