A College Football Playoff without Georgia? Plus, Kirby Smart in beef court

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Today we’re talking about noon kickoffs (do you like them?) and untimely player celebrations. But first, let’s break down last night’s College Football Playoff rankings release.

New Rankings

ACC and Georgia in danger

The second edition of the College Football Playoff rankings were released last night. Here’s what the bracket would look like, if the regular season ended right now:

Who’s in? Ole Miss. The Rebels are the only addition since last week’s inaugural rankings. Here’s a look at their resume: an 8-2 record with two three-point losses to Kentucky (3-6) and No. 22 LSU (6-3), plus two ranked wins against No. 21 South Carolina (by a score of 27-3) and No. 12 Georgia (28-10). The Rebels should be in good shape for the postseason, but their remaining games against Florida and Mississippi State don’t offer much ground to gain.

First one out? Georgia. Kirby Smart’s two-time champs are No. 12 in the committee’s rankings, but they are the first team out of the CFP bracket because No. 13 Boise State would get an automatic conference-champ bid. This is obviously a result of Georgia’s loss to Ole Miss last weekend, but the Dawgs should get some credit for already playing three current top-10 teams (Alabama, Texas and the Rebels). As Stewart Mandel wrote yesterday, it might be time for us to stop defaulting to number of losses when ranking teams.

Biggest surprise? SMU. Not only did the 8-1 Mustangs miss the projected Playoff field, but they DROPPED a spot to No. 14. My gripe isn’t with Miami being projected to earn the conference’s top-four seed — realistically, the teams will play for that in the conference championship game. My gripe is with how far ahead Miami is ranked of SMU. The Hurricanes’ best win is against No. 22 Louisville … by as many points as SMU.

The Canes haven’t played any other ranked teams and just lost to unranked Georgia Tech (not to mention their stretch of close calls against Virginia Tech and Cal). If the committee values close losses (as they did for 8-2 Ole Miss), SMU’s three-point loss to No. 6 BYU can’t be what’s holding them back. So what is it?

Best hypothetical on-campus matchup: 10-seed Alabama at 7-seed Indiana. Give us the Crimson Tide in Bloomington in late December! Memorial Stadium has already hosted its first “College GameDay” and achieved a record number of sellouts. The stadium’s capacity (52,626) is half that of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium (101,821). And to make it even better … let’s hope for snow!

Game with biggest CFP impact this week: No. 7 Tennessee (8-1) at No. 12 Georgia (7-2). Bulldogs fans shouldn’t sweat too much over their ranking this week, as Georgia can win its way right back in this weekend. With a win, the Vols would be near-locks to make the field. If they lose, they put themselves at risk of being mixed up in the crowd of two-loss SEC teams.

Noon Games

Why does everybody hate them?

Two weeks after Ohio State beat Penn State in Happy Valley, the two Big Ten powerhouses might have something they agree on: “Big Noon” angst.

On Monday, it was confirmed that Ohio State will conclude its regular season with six straight noon games, which includes the Nov. 23 top-10 matchup against Indiana. That’s the most conference noon games — let alone consecutive ones — the Buckeyes have played in a season since at least 2014 and the most since “Big Noon Kickoff” was introduced in 2019.

Penn State fans already voiced their displeasure with the noon viewing window by selling “Big Noon Sucks” T-shirts and chanting expletives toward the pregame show in the background of “College GameDay” before hosting the Buckeyes.

ESPN’s Rece Davis deadpanned in response: “They would prefer a little bit of a later start.”

There are many reasons for the groans over a noon kick. Among them: There’s less time to tailgate, and “that 7:30 energy is just different,” as one Penn State player said (The Athletic’s Audrey Snyder detailed other grievances here).

Regardless, TV viewers show out. Ohio State-Penn State has averaged 9.4 million viewers when aired on Fox’s “Big Noon” over the last few years, compared to 7.3 million viewers when aired on other networks and/or in other time windows in the past quarter-century, per Fox president of insight and analytics Mike Mulvihill.

Joel Klatt, one of Fox’s college football analysts, defended “Big Noon” on social media this week amid the backlash.

So, let’s settle this the only way we know how: an Until Saturday poll. What do you think about noon games? Tell us here.

Petre Thomas / Imagn Images

Why did Kirby Smart call his player ‘an idiot’?

C.F.B. — Until Saturday’s exclusive College Football Beef court — is back today with a player seemingly celebrating on the field after his team’s loss and his coach calling him “an idiot.”

What happened? After Georgia got slammed on the road against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs’ largest margin of defeat in five years, backup safety Jake Pope was caught on video seemingly celebrating with Rebels fans. How bad did it look? You can be the judge, but it’s easy to see how Pope’s wide smile while jumping up and down could be misinterpreted.

Pope, who transferred to Georgia from Alabama this season, later apologized on social media, clarifying that the person he was celebrating with was a childhood friend and former teammate of his whom he was excited to see. At his Monday news conference, coach Kirby Smart responded to the situation.

“What an idiot. I mean just stupid,” Smart said. “I didn’t see it till today. But he’s embarrassed about it. He’s upset about it. … Just not real smart, but to be honest with you, I don’t have time to waste energy on that.”

But yesterday, Smart walked back his comments, saying that calling “a great kid” an idiot was “a mistake.”

Verdict: I’ve seen enough untimely celebrations in the last month to know how much they can frustrate fans (Tyrique Stevenson of my beloved Chicago Bears taunted the Washington Commanders crowd before Jayden Daniels completed a Hail Mary to win the game).

But Stevenson’s move and Pope’s are not the same. For Pope, a planned meeting with his old friend outside of the stadium could have avoided this, but the fact this was caught on video just feels unlucky. As for Smart, I’m all for coaches holding players accountable, but he added fuel to the fire in an otherwise big misunderstanding.

Quick Snaps

Indiana’s undefeated. No SEC team is unscathed. The Big 12 is wide open. What’s different about this college football season? It’s not the parity, it’s the unpredictability.

Speaking of: Indiana is approaching the biggest game in its history. But what else is on the line in Big Ten games this month? Scott Dochterman outlines the most important matchups remaining for each team.

You can buy tickets to every college football game here.

For streaming info on Fubo, click here.

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(Top photo: Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)