Indiana coach Curt Cignetti took another swipe at the College Football Playoff rankings on Thursday, and this time he let the emojis do some of the talking.
In a post on his X account, Cignetti wrote: “Bad losses don’t count anymore? Are first downs still 10 yards?”
After the first question, he added six crying emoji. After the second, he used three clown emoji.
The message appeared to be aimed at the latest CFP rankings, where Indiana dropped from No. 4 to No. 9 despite not playing last week. The Hoosiers are 8-1.
One possible target was Alabama, which sits at No. 3 despite a 26-10 loss to Tennessee, now ranked No. 8. The Crimson Tide are 7-2 and moved up three spots after beating LSU 31-13 on Saturday.
CFP chairman and Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek defended Alabama’s position by pointing to the committee’s résumé view.
“Alabama’s got four really good wins in the view of the committee - at LSU, at Kentucky, versus South Carolina, and at Mississippi State back in September that was undefeated,” Yurachek said.
Mississippi State is now 4-5 overall and 2-5 in the SEC after losing quarterback Kamario Taylor to a season-ending injury.
Cignetti’s post was only the latest sign of frustration from Big Ten coaches over the weekly rankings. Last week on his radio show, he said, “ The SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN, and all their writers that they don’t technically pay but march to their drum.
That’s why you see all these SEC teams up there, you know, some good two-loss teams from the Big Ten not quite as high. But like I said, it’s all gonna be played out on the field.”
The latest rankings backed up that complaint in the eyes of some Big Ten coaches. All four 6-3 SEC teams were included, including Ole Miss, which has a 24-point loss to Florida and a 35-point home loss to Georgia.
The Big Ten also has five teams at 6-3, but only Oregon and Ohio State made the rankings. Wisconsin, Illinois and Northwestern were left out, even though all of Wisconsin and Northwestern’s losses came against teams currently ranked in the CFP top 20.
Illinois coach Bret Bielema, whose team is unranked despite beating now-No. 16 Oregon 21-10 during a four-game winning streak, also took a shot at the committee and the SEC.
“If we were in the SEC, we’d probably be a top-15 team,” Bielema said Friday after Illinois beat Nebraska 24-13. “We’ve just got to continue to stay on track where we’re at and do a really good job of holding the moment and putting ourselves in a position to be successful.”
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz joined the chorus too, though his gripe was aimed at ESPN. A lifelong Major League Baseball fan, he criticized the network last week for only lightly covering the World Series. On the rankings show, he said, “I won’t watch that.”
“I better watch out because I’m pro-Fox, right?” Ferentz said.
“We’re a Fox conference and several others, but we’re not ESPN, so we probably won’t make the rankings. … I’m not too worried about it.”
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Oklahoma has its own injury questions, but the Sooners appear to be in a better spot overall, which only adds to the pressure on Ole Miss to find answers quickly. For a team trying to reset its trajectory, this matchup has the feel of a possible turning point, and the Rebels could use a clean performance in a tough road setting to keep the season from drifting further off course. [Read more 🡒]