Rival Views: What team should be No. 4 in CFB playoff rankings?

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate whether Texas A&M or Washington should be No. 4 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.

Texas A&M was deservedly ranked No. 4 in the first batch of College Football Playoff rankings. You can put all the SEC bias talk away.

Who has Washington beaten? Utah? While I like the Utes and Kyle Whittingham, that's not exactly a signature win over a top 10 team. And Washington's out-of-conference schedule of Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State is simply embarrassing.

So far Washington has beat a ranked Utah team and then the following in Pac-12 play: a horrible Arizona team, a weak Stanford team and pair of bad teams from Oregon.

The Aggies, meanwhile, have beat UCLA with Josh Rosen, a top 10 Auburn on the road, Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee. Yes, Texas A&M has a blemish on its schedule, but that was to the No. 1 team in the nation and the game was closer than the score indicated.

I respect undefeated teams at this stage of the season. It’s hard to go unblemished. But you also have to beat winning teams and, so far, the Huskies have beaten just two compared with the Aggies' four. That’s more impressive to me.

There is absolutely no question in my mind that Washington deserves to be in the top four of the College Football Playoff rankings. It’s really not even a debate.

First, Washington is undefeated. Beating Stanford 44-6 is not easy, ever, even if the Cardinal is not playing well this season. It’s never easy putting 70 on Oregon even if the Ducks’ defense is not what it used to be. Going to Utah and beating the one-loss Utes by a touchdown seems to have mattered none.

The Associated Press and the Coaches’ Poll both have Washington fourth and Texas A&M seventh but we’re supposed to swallow that the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is just so much smarter and sees something no one else does by leapfrogging the one-loss Aggies over Washington at this point.

I don’t buy it one bit.

Why play the games at all if wins don’t matter? I understand “strength of schedule” seems to matter so much more than actually winning games but that’s just a made-up number compared to going out and producing.

If you believe Texas A&M should be ranked ahead of Washington then there is also a significant argument for Louisville as well since its only loss came at Clemson, which is in the top four. Where does it end?

It should end with teams that win in Power Five conferences. It isn’t Washington’s fault that Texas A&M lost a game, convincingly, to Alabama, hardly snuck by Tennessee and didn’t look great against UCLA and South Carolina.

But all of a sudden the Aggies are deserving of a playoff spot and Washington isn’t? This probably gets settled if Washington wins out but still the Huskies shouldn’t have to deal with it and it only shows tremendous SEC bias.