The top three teams in the College Football Playoff rankings — Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M — remained unchanged while Georgia slid into No. 4 and the last first-round bye in the committee’s latest rankings revealed Tuesday night.
Georgia capitalized on the biggest result of the weekend, rival Alabama’s 23-21 loss to Oklahoma, that resulted in the Crimson Tide dropping six spots to No. 10. Georgia’s lone loss of the season came to Alabama by three points, but it soundly defeated then-No. 10 Texas 35-10 on Saturday.
Oklahoma rose just three places to No. 8 with its win at Tuscaloosa and leads a large glut of mostly 8-2 teams between the eighth and 15th spots.
Following Georgia in the rankings were three one-loss teams: Texas Tech, Ole Miss and Oregon. Oklahoma moved past Notre Dame (8-2), which remained at No. 9.
After Alabama came BYU, Utah, Miami, Vanderbilt and Southern California. Of that group, only BYU is 9-1.
The new Group of Five representative in the mock bracket is Tulane (8-2). Last week’s lone G5 team in the rankings, South Florida, fell 41-38 at Navy for its third loss of the season, and Tulane entered the Top 25 for the first time this year at No. 24.
Meanwhile, Miami is the highest-ranked Atlantic Coast Conference team this week at No. 13 and therefore appeared in the mock bracket, but it will be highly unlikely for the Hurricanes to reach the conference championship game. No. 16 Georgia Tech, No. 19 Virginia, Pitt and SMU each have one conference loss while Miami owns two league losses.
Miami finds itself four spots behind Notre Dame despite owning a head-to-head victory and an identical record. In an interview on ESPN’s broadcast, new committee chair Hunter Yurachek explained that the Hurricanes had not been compared head-to-head with the Fighting Irish yet because they were viewed in different “tiers” due to the quality of their losses.
Notre Dame’s losses came to Texas A&M and Miami, both highly-ranked squads, and Miami’s came to Louisville and SMU, both currently unranked.
“We really haven’t compared those two teams. They haven’t been in similar comparative pools to date,” Yurachek said. “But Miami is creeping up into that range, where they will be compared to Notre Dame if something happens above them.”
Yurachek, the athletic director at Arkansas, made his debut as the committee chair this week after taking over for Mack Rhoades, who stepped down from the position while also taking a leave of absence from his role as Baylor’s AD. The university has confirmed unspecified allegations were made against Rhoades.
Yurachek offered little clarity to the question of how a conference championship game loss would weigh on a team’s resume.
“The data point of a conference championship game will be just like it is in the past. It is another data point, for most teams a 13th data point, that will be used to compare them to other teams in the ranking,” Yurachek said.
The latest College Football Playoff projections:
First-round byes: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia
First-round games:
No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Texas Tech
No. 11 Miami at No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Oregon
No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oklahoma
First team out: BYU
College Football Playoff rankings
1. Ohio State (10-0)
2. Indiana (11-0)
3. Texas A&M (10-0)
4. Georgia (9-1)
5. Texas Tech (10-1)
6. Ole Miss (10-1)
7. Oregon (9-1)
8. Oklahoma (8-2)
9. Notre Dame (8-2)
10. Alabama (8-2)
11. BYU (9-1)
12. Utah (8-2)
13. Miami (8-2)
14. Vanderbilt (8-2)
15. Southern California (8-2)
16. Georgia Tech (9-1)
17. Texas (7-3)
18. Michigan (8-2)
19. Virginia (9-2)
20. Tennessee (7-3)
21. Illinois (7-3)
22. Missouri (7-3)
23. Houston (8-2)
24. Tulane (8-2)
25. Arizona State (7-3)
–Field Level Media
