Actually, ranking in the CFP DOES matter.:
The way I see it at this point, if we end up beating Cincinnati: There's a potential three-way tie for second. Since the CCG is the following week, you have to go to section 7.5 for the tiebreaking procedure. This weeks upcoming CFP rankings will determine the opponent. Since UCF lost, I'd have to think CIN would be ranked and UCF maybe not at all. But 7.5.1 says that team needs to have won their game, and CIN would have lost. So then they go to 7.5.2 and they use a composite ranking to see who of CIN, UCF and HTN would be our opponent.
If we were to lose to CIN, CIN would host, and we'd be in the three way tie with UCF and HTN. Since no one would have beaten both teams, we'd go to 7.5.1. We would have been the highest ranked team, but we would have lost, so it goes to 7.5.2, which goes back to that composite ranking. Which could mean, since we've been ranked higher than all those teams and a loss to CIN wouldn't be a bad loss, we could possibly still end up being the visiting team in the CCG which would be hosted by CIN. (Note: at this time all 4 of the rankings used in the composite have UCF ahead of us, but thats before a loss to Navy. Houston isn't close in any of them, so is realistically out of the running).
Confusing, I know.
https://theamerican.org/documents/2020/ ... proved.pdf
7.1. If more than two teams tie for first or second place, the tiebreaker procedures will be applied separately to
identify the two participants in the championship game.
7.2. If only two teams remain tied after any step in the tiebreaking process, the two-team tie procedures shall
be used to break the tie.
7.3. The Conference records of the tied teams are compared in a mini round-robin format. If, within the mini
round-robin, any of the tied teams did not play each other, the group of teams shall remain tied, unless
one team defeated all other tied teams.
7.4. The team that has the highest College Football Playoff Selection Committee Rankings (CFP) shall be a
Championship Game participant: The latest available CFP Rankings will be used to break ties (see Item 5). If
a team or teams lose in the final weekend of the Conference season to create a tie and there are
subsequent CFP rankings, those rankings will be used to break ties.
7.5. If the regular season ends and the Championship Game is scheduled for the next Saturday, then the
following tiebreaker procedures will be used;
7.5.1.If the highest-ranked of the tied teams in the latest available CFP Selection Committee rankings wins
in the final weekend of regular season Conference play, it will be declared a Championship Game
participant.
7.5.2.If the highest-ranked of the tied teams in the latest available CFP Selection Committee rankings
loses in the final weekend of regular season Conference play, then a composite average of selected
computer rankings (Anderson & Hester, Billingsley, Colley and Wolfe) will be used to determine the
Championship Game participants;
