If you were expecting fireworks from Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings, I’m sorry to disappoint you.
The top seven teams remain the same, with Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, and Ohio State coming in as the four top teams in the CFP.
Georgia is the clear number one team, 10-0 on the season and coming off of a 41-17 win over an up-and-coming Tennessee team. The 17 points are the most given up by the Georgia defense on the season, highlighting just how dominant they have been.
Alabama basically had a bye week in playing New Mexico State, though their 59-3 win was enough for the Crimson Tide to leapfrog Cincinnati in the Associated Press top-25. A date with No. 21 Arkansas awaits on Saturday.
Oregon is once again the No. 3 team in the playoff ranking, despite playing in a weak Pac-12 conference and having a loss to 3-7 Stanford. The Ducks week two win over Ohio State in Columbus is clearly carrying major weight.
“Head to head is certainly one of the criteria that we use and one of the things we evaluated,” said Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, the committee chairman. “In Oregon’s case, Oregon has been playing terrific football as of late; they won the other day against Washington State. Ohio State is playing some of the best offense in the country; they had a convincing win against Purdue. But when it comes down to those two, the fact that Oregon went to Ohio State and beat them in the Horseshoe, when the vote came down this week, that’s the way the vote came out.”
Speaking of the Buckeyes, they remain the last team in the CFP, coming in at No. 4 after an impressive 59-31 win over No. 19 Purdue. Ohio State’s remaining schedule is brutal, welcoming Michigan State to Columbus before a visit to The Big House to wrap up their regular season.
Cincinnati remains ranked just outside the top four, coming at No. 5 following an unimpressive 45-28 win over now 2-8 South Florida. The Bearcats best win of the season came over Notre Dame in South Bend, who at 9-1 come in at No. 8 in CFP rankings, still with an outside chance of making the CFP.
“Well, they have great wins — they won again this week at Virginia,” Barta said of Notre Dame. “One of the things the committee did note is that Virginia did not have their starting quarterback, but they’re 9-1, they have really — they have a very strong strength of schedule. They have wins against Wisconsin and Purdue. Their loss, obviously, was to Cincinnati. We think very highly of them. They continue to play good football. Just put them just after Michigan State, obviously.”
Michigan (No. 7) remains ahead of Michigan State (No. 8), with Oklahoma State (No.9) and Wake Forest rounding out the top-10. Oklahoma drops down to No. 13 following their first loss of the season against Baylor on Saturday.
Take a look at the College Football Playoff selection committee rankings below.
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Oregon
- Ohio State
- Cincinnati
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Notre Dame
- Oklahoma State
- Wake Forest
- Baylor
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
- BYU
- Wisconsin
- Texas A&M
- Iowa
- Pittsburgh
- San Diego State
- NC State
- Arkansas
- UTSA
- Utah
- Houston
- Mississippi State
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.