BRETT DANIELS: I'd like to welcome everyone to the third College Football Playoff Selection Committee teleconference for the 2022 season. Joining us tonight is Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, along with Boo Corrigan, College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair.
Q. Boo, what are the relevant strengths between Ohio State and Michigan? Obviously they're going to play in a week so it's not going to matter a whole lot, but I'm curious how the committee views them versus each other right now.
BOO CORRIGAN: First of all, thank you for being a part of this. Two well-balanced teams, both in the top 10 offensively and defensively. Ohio State does have the win over Notre Dame, which I believe at this point as a committee, as we talk about it, that stands out a little bit to us as we're going through this.
But again, two really good teams that play really hard. Both had good wins this past week over Indiana and Nebraska. There's a reason one is 2 and one is 3 in how close they are.
Q. How close are they to Georgia?
BOO CORRIGAN: I think the committee believes there's been separation with Georgia, but there's still more games to play as we kind of get through the balance of the season.
Q. I'm going to hit you with another Ohio State comparison question. As you're comparing Ohio State and Georgia, is that separation based more on performance or more on the quality schedule that Georgia has played that has afforded them some extra quality wins that you're looking for?
BOO CORRIGAN: When we look at it, we notice the win over Tennessee, the win over Oregon, the top-10 defense, another win for them this past week at Mississippi State. In the eyes of the committee, that's a separator for us.
Again, looking at those three teams and how balanced they are offensively and defensively, we have determined that Georgia is ahead of the other two.
Q. I was wondering how much, if any, discussion there was about possibly giving TCU a bump over Michigan after the win at Texas.
BOO CORRIGAN: We looked at all four of them. As we're going through the process multiple times, everyone was really impressed with the defense of TCU against Texas and really giving up a field goal from a defensive standpoint. Each time we went through the process, we came up with Georgia 1, Ohio State 2, Michigan 3 and TCU 4.
Q. To follow up on the first question, is it as simple to say that Michigan's non-conference compared to Ohio State's non-conference is the separator for you guys based on what you said before?
BOO CORRIGAN: We don't believe there's anything simple about it. We're going to go through each week with a clean sheet, look at every team, continue to evaluate, continue to compare, statistically continue to compare their schedules.
But all that being said, the strength of schedule is different as we look at it. But again, we're looking at so many different factors as opposed to just one. From a protocol standpoint we want to make sure we get it right, and that's why we landed where we did this week.
Q. To follow up on Michigan specifically, I feel like we've often compared them instead of just hearing what you guys see specifically. What are the strengths of Michigan when you look at them right now?
BOO CORRIGAN: Win over Penn State, top-10 defense, giving up just 11 points a game, balanced, Blake Corum and the job he's done this season. Again, defensively they're really solid, and feel good that they're a solid No. 3 team.
Q. Generally speaking, how much, if at all, did the committee talk about injuries to Ohio State's running backs, and without looking forward, can you speak in general as to how the committee does view injuries to key players?
BOO CORRIGAN: When we are evaluating the games and the teams and taking notice of a player who does leave the game early and noting that during the course of the game as we're doing a recap of each team, during that week, from a projection standpoint, as you know, we don't project and look ahead. But certainly during the game and having a greater understanding of how the team flows, we want to make sure we have all the information.
Q. I noticed that UCF is ranked 20th in the rankings, one spot below FSU. UCF has one fewer loss than FSU and two of their wins came over ranked opponents in Cincinnati and Tulane. What factored into giving FSU the bump over UCF?
BOO CORRIGAN: When we looked at it as a committee, Florida State has the win over LSU, No. 6. On a head-to-head comparison, Florida State beat Louisville, UCF lost to Louisville. Big win for UCF this past weekend against Tulane as well as earlier in the season against Cincinnati. But we really felt that the three-game stretch that Florida State went through with Wake, NC State and Clemson, since that time they've rebounded nicely including a 38-3 win over Syracuse.
BRETT DANIELS: I'd just like to thank everyone for their participation in tonight's call.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports