Will the College Football Playoff committee rank UTSA on Tuesday?

The second batch of College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday and the main controversy will once again be around where Cincinnati is ranked. While the plight of the AAC powerhouse has been discussed ad nauseam over the past week, there’s another undefeated Group of Five program not getting its due from the committee.

The UTSA Roadrunners have remained perfect throughout 2021 and didn’t even crack the Top 25 in last week’s rankings, let alone be considered for a potential playoff bid. Spurned by the snub, they went out to the Sun Bowl late Saturday night and crushed bowl UTEP 44-23 to improve to 9-0 on the season.

Led by rising coaching star Jeff Traylor and dynamic running back Sincere McCormick, UTSA has developed somewhat of a cult following within the college football world as it continues to win week after week. The Roadrunners eked out impressive close victories like a 31-28 road win over Memphis September 25 and have racked up a few blowouts like a 45-16 pasting of Louisiana Tech a few weeks back.

UTSA’s biggest win of the season came way back in Week 1 of the regular season, where the Roadrunners went up to Champaign, IL, and got a 37-30 win over Illinois. That victory has appreciated in value with the Illini clipping Penn State in overtime a few weeks ago before taking down No. 20 Minnesota Saturday.

It’ll be interesting to see if the CFP committee actually includes UTSA on Tuesday. While no one would make an argument on their behalf to be included in the actual playoff itself, it would be a nice sign of respect. UTSA would become just the second Conference USA program to be included in the rankings after Marshall, who has been included twice.