Marshall Raheim Huskey and team mates celebrate with fans their 23-18 win over UAB in an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014, at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The good news for Marshall University fans?
Their beloved Thundering Herd is finally in the College Football Playoff rankings.
The bad news?
They still aren’t in a position to make one of the New Year’s Six bowls at season’s end.
After several weeks of not having any Group of Five conference teams ranked, the committee decided this week to include two teams: Boise State, that is 9-2, and Marshall, that is unblemished at 11-0.
Jeff Long, chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee and athletic director at the University of Arkansas, explained the decision in a teleconference following the release of the rankings.
“Teams from outside the Group of Five conferences had been just outside the Top 25 for several weeks,” Long said. “This week, they won their games, the teams above them lost and, as a result, they are now voted into the Top 25.”
The interesting thing about Long’s words is he says the Group of Five teams had been just outside the Top 25 for weeks, yet none was included in the previous week when seven of the bottom 10 teams in the rankings lost.
So what exactly was different about this week than last week?
“Their records, their schedules, and the committee’s view of how good these teams are compared to other teams…
