The Utah Utes are sitting at No. 2 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, and that placement has sparked plenty of debate. Utah is 9-0, and the selection committee clearly believes in this team. The question is whether the Utes are truly the second-best team in the country, or more of a No. 8 team that simply hasn’t faced a lot of elite competition.

If you ask me, the honest answer is that we just don’t know yet. That may sound like a cop-out, but it is where the evidence points right now.

How the committee is justifying Utah at No. 2

The best way to look at this is to put yourself in the committee’s shoes. How are they justifying this ranking by their own system, using the numbers we know they actually weigh?

Strength of schedule is the first place to start. The committee is crediting the SEC heavily, and most of the playoff teams have a strength of schedule that lands somewhere inside the top 15. Indiana and UCLA are the main exceptions, since neither has played much of anybody.

Then there is Utah, which sits outside the top 60 in strength of schedule. That is the biggest knock on its resume.

Still, the Utes deserve credit for what they have done. Utah went through a tough stretch with Houston, Cincinnati, and BYU in consecutive weeks. BYU, in particular, is a legitimate opponent.

On top of that, the Utes rank extremely high in the other metrics that ESPN and the committee are supposed to care about. That includes game control, where Utah has dominated opponents it should be superior to, and strength of record, where the Utes land somewhere in the fourth or fifth range.

Would Utah hold up in the SEC or Big Ten?

This is where things get tricky. It would have been great to see Utah actually line up against a major Big Ten or SEC program. Without that, every argument about where the Utes truly belong comes down to projection.

You will often see people claim that Utah or BYU would be 10-2 teams in the SEC. I don’t buy that, especially in a season like this one. Maybe this version of Utah could get there, but it probably isn’t the most realistic outcome. If you actually projected it out, nine or 10 wins is likely the ceiling for a team like this in that conference.

Using that frame of reference, the Utes might technically belong somewhere in the No. 8 or No. 9 range. They stomped Arkansas, but that isn’t saying all that much this year.

Why Utah still deserves its spot

Here’s the thing about this debate. Utah has nine wins, and it has gone 9-0 against the schedule it was given. That is a schedule the Utes couldn’t do anything about.

Utah has proven it against everyone it was supposed to beat. It has done so convincingly, which is exactly what the game control and strength of record numbers reflect. You can’t drop a team down the rankings just because it hasn’t played an SEC opponent that fits our personal criteria for a national championship contender.

There’s a lot of intrigue surrounding how the committee will handle Utah over the final weeks of the season, especially if the teams around them keep stacking quality wins. The Utes have done their part to this point. Whether they are truly No. 2 good is something we may not learn until the playoff itself.