The top five of the College Football Playoff rankings did not change Tuesday, while Oregon was bumped one spot to No. 6 as a reward for defeating ranked rival Southern California over the weekend.
Oregon’s move came at the expense of Ole Miss, which slipped to No. 7 on an idle week (and amid the saga of whether Rebels coach Lane Kiffin will leave the team for LSU or Florida after the season). The Ducks’ 42-27 home win over the Trojans became the best victory on Oregon’s resume.
In his interview on ESPN’s broadcast, CFP chair Hunter Yurachek talked around the question of whether the committee would penalize Ole Miss if Kiffin left the school before the playoff.
“We would not have seen the team play without a coach,” Yurachek said.
Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M, Georgia and Texas Tech once again constituted the top five. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama and BYU remained Nos. 8-11. Alabama was the final at-large team in the mock bracket, and BYU was the first team to miss the cut.
Behind them, Miami moved one spot past Utah for No. 12. Even though the Hurricanes cannot qualify for the ACC championship game, they represented the league in the bracket as a placeholder for one of the five highest-ranked conference champs.
Miami defeated Virginia Tech 34-17 on the road last Saturday, while Utah got a scare from visiting Kansas State and had to rally to win 51-47.
With the move, Miami is still three spots behind Notre Dame, a team it beat head to head to open the season. Yurachek made clear the committee prefers Notre Dame’s full body of work.
“(Miami and Notre Dame) were compared this week in the same pod with Alabama and a one-loss BYU,” Yurachek said, “and the committee still feels that Notre Dame is a complete team, has been consistent throughout the season, and deserves to be ranked where they are at No. 9 ahead of Alabama, a really good two-loss team with some great wins, and then a one-loss BYU team, and then Miami falls in accordingly.”
Yurachek went on to praise Miami quarterback Carson Beck’s recent performance and pointed out that the Hurricanes have been the rankings’ biggest riser, from No. 18 in the initial rankings on Nov. 4 to No. 12 this week.
Oregon’s move up to No. 6 created a juicy first-round matchup in the mock bracket vs. 11th seed Miami. That would pit Miami coach Mario Cristobal against his former school. It also created a potential first-round matchup between SEC rivals Ole Miss and Alabama in the 7-10 game.
Tulane remained at No. 24 as the only non-power-conference team in the Top 25. The Green Wave area the projected American Conference champion and the No. 12 seed in the bracket for the second week running.
There is still room for chaos in the final week of the regular season. Nine of the top 10 teams have to go on the road and many play their rivals — including Ohio State at No. 15 Michigan, Indiana at Purdue, Texas A&M at No. 16 Texas, Georgia at No. 23 Georgia Tech and Alabama at Auburn.
Kiffin will be coaching the Rebels in the Egg Bowl at Mississippi State on Friday, and his decision of whether to leave or stay with the program is expected to come the following day.
The CFP’s final rankings will be announced on Dec. 7, one day after the conference title games.
CFP mock bracket
First-round games:
–No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Texas Tech
–No. 11 Miami at No. 6 Oregon
–No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Ole Miss
–No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oklahoma
First-round byes: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia
CFP Top 25
1. Ohio State (11-0)
2. Indiana (11-0)
3. Texas A&M (11-0)
4. Georgia (10-1)
5. Texas Tech (10-1)
6. Oregon (10-1)
7. Ole Miss (10-1)
8. Oklahoma (9-2)
9. Notre Dame (9-2)
10. Alabama (9-2)
11. BYU (10-1)
12. Miami (9-2)
13. Utah (9-2)
14. Vanderbilt (9-2)
15. Michigan (9-2)
16. Texas (8-3)
17. Southern California (8-3)
18. Virginia (9-2)
19. Tennessee (8-3)
20. Arizona State (8-3)
21. SMU (8-3)
22. Pitt (8-3)
23. Georgia Tech (9-2)
24. Tulane (9-2)
25. Arizona (8-3)
–Field Level Media
