Don’t eat the poison from Saban and Swinney, last night’s rankings mattered
By: will-vandervort November 1, 2017

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and Alabama head coach Nick Saban have both publically said the College Football Playoff Rankings that were released Tuesday night mean nothing or “they just don’t matter” as Swinney likes to say.

But they are both wrong. They do matter and here is why.

For Alabama, who has been No. 1 all season long and has been told it is the best thing since slice bread, suddenly it drops to No. 2. Now, at least for this week, the Crimson Tide is no longer the top dog. That belongs to Georgia, who is No. 1 in the CFP Committee’s first Top 25 ranking.

Don’t you think for a second Saban isn’t going to feed that “rat poison” to his team. He will use that to humble his players and get them to be motivated even more to prove “the naysayers wrong.” I feel sorry for LSU this Saturday.

As for Swinney, Clemson could not have asked for a better ranking. Despite their loss to Syracuse on Oct. 13, the Tigers find themselves in perfect position to have an opportunity to defend its 2016 national championship. Clemson is No. 4 in the rankings and if it wins out, it could move to No. 2 or No. 3 depending on what happens with Georgia, Alabama and Notre Dame in the next month.

Being ranked No. 4 does matter to start off in the rankings. With Clemson’s quality wins over No. 13 Virginia Tech and No. 15 Auburn and its FBS best six wins over teams with winning records, it’s going to be hard for the committee to drop the Tigers in the rankings as long as they keep winning.

Look at this way, Clemson controls its own destiny right now. Oklahoma, who is No. 5 and Ohio State, who is No. 6, can’t say that.

Now the Tigers can keep their “the next game is the biggest game” mantra because it is true, from here on out every game matters just like every CFP ranking matters. When Clemson visits No. 20 NC State on Saturday, the Tigers are playing for more than just an ACC Atlantic Division title … they are in a playoff game.

It’s win-and-advance time. As long as the Tigers keep winning, then nothing anyone else does matters. Clemson will be in the CFP for a third straight year. It just goes to show, rankings, even the one on Oct. 31, do matter.