Committee Chair Jeff Long on Dan Patrick show discussing rankings

paraphrasing...

process is like NCAA basketball
start with pool of teams
each person has their top 25, everyone puts that into a computer which spits out who are most voted on 25
split to top 6 teams
determine top 3 and go down from there looking at 6 teams at a time

biggest debate was on 4,5,6 - looked at over 2 days

Questions from DP to Long
Why put out poll now? Have enough data at this point in the season to have rankings on THIS season
How much is last year(s) factored in? Never discuss past, really focused on this season/thus far this season...not projecting
SEC bias? Fan development, people looking outside can claim that. Not a time when they discuss conferences or conference strength of schedule. Just teams vs teams they have played to that point
Can you have a good loss? Yes, ND was good loss. Look at rest of their body of work and loss did help them
Factor in team not at full strength with final four? Will look at injuries/disciplinary actions. Discussed injuries this round, Oregon in particular missing their OT for their loss
Contract 12 years for Final Four...a move to 8 before? Thinks it will stay at 4 and makes sense for college because of academic schedules

Actually, Oregon was missing 4 OL and their stud DE for the second half- when the DE played in the first half, they held AZ to 3 points I believe, the second he went out, Az rushed exclusively at his side and gashed them.

edited: sounded like he said 16 teams, thought that was weird, actually said 6 teams