Can 1-loss LSU wiggle into College Football Playoff without winning SEC?

1, while Alabama jumps up from No. 4 to No. 2.

Three of the top eight teams in the first set of College Football Playoff rankings lost over the weekend, so a shakeup was bound to come. Committee chairman Jeff Long said on television to expect volatile movement.

So far, Notre Dame’s best wins are against No. 20 Navy and No. 22 Temple. Notre Dame (8-1) moved up from No. 5 to make the top four. In last week’s first top 25, the Cowboys were the lowest Power Five unbeaten team, checking in at No. 14.

Iowa (9-0) and Baylor (8-1) are in fifth and sixth, respectively, ahead of Stanford. While Baylor has certainly been better at blowing out teams than Houston has, it hasn’t been by a significant enough difference to justify an 18-spot gap in the rankings.

The top four was filled out by Clemson, which kept its top spot after beating Florida State, Alabama, which moved from fourth to second, and Ohio State, which remained in third following a defeat of Minnesota. While the Cardinal have at times looked as good as anyone in the country, the Cardinal still do have that loss to Northwestern.

The committee still likes Baylor more, even though the Bears are yet to beat a team with a winning record.

Looking at opponents with winning records, something Long has talked about, should lean Baylor’s way. What if No. 10 Utah wins out, including a victory over No. 7 Stanford in the Pac-12 title game?

The committee has often emphasized “top-25 wins”, which can be a tricky thing to rely on for evaluations.

Notre Dame’s two best wins are against American Athletic Conference teams, according to the selection committee, although USC would likely have to be in that mix as well. The Buckeyes’ best win is over 7-3 Penn State. That’s not a lot different than Baylor, which did beat 5-5 Texas Tech. Ohio State hasn’t beaten anyone, but the committee likes the potential there.

Clemson remained No. 1, with Alabama moving up two spots to No. 2, Ohio State staying at No. 3 and the Fighting Irish up a spot to No. 4. The high-scoring Bears have yet to play a ranked team, but that changes next week when they embark on a three-game stretch against Oklahoma (No. 12 in the CFP rankings), Oklahoma State (8) and TCU (15). But there’s a few disconnect in how the committee is talking about them at the moment. There’s another thing to sound like you’re handing out bonus points for teams that suffered injuries and kept winning – like Ohio State did with Cardale Jones a year ago.

That line of thinking rang hollow.