OU 5th, OSU 11th in College Football Playoff rankings

The initial rankings for this year’s College Football Playoff are out, and there’s already drama at the top. Georgia’s one close game was at Notre Dame in September, a 20-19 victory. Notre Dame has blown out USC and NC State the past two weeks.

“The debate, as passionate as the discussion for teams 3 through 7 was, was even more passionate for teams 1 and 2”, Hocutt said.

I thought they would keep Ohio State and, possibly, Oklahoma ahead of them, but they surprised me. But the Tigers also have impressive wins over Auburn and Virginia Tech, the latter on the road. The Badgers and Hurricanes are unbeaten but are behind six other teams with one loss due to their lack of quality wins.

With the exception of Georgia and Alabama, all of these teams have one thing in common: In their quest to make the playoff field, they nearly certainly can’t survive another loss.

Notre Dame is not totally safe though. However, they will have the opportunity to face both Georgia and Alabama at home later this month. Oklahoma 6. Ohio State 7.

The Big Ten leads all conferences with three teams in the top 10, followed by the ACC (2), Big 12 (2), and SEC (2).The Pac-12 is not represented inside of the top 10.

First of all, they must win out. It might be impossible for some Notre Dame fans to consider cheering for USC, but remember, it’s for the greater good. Oklahoma State (7-1) 12.

It is the first time the Cyclones appeared in the CFP rankings.

Just like that, Saban has the key motivational piece for the rest of the season, something last year’s team lacked. If they go 12-0, they’d be hard to overlook. So it’s hard to put a ton of stock in a set of rankings that will change multiple times – for sometimes curious reasons – until the binding and final set on December 3.

The first Playoff rankings are always going to come with some controversy from the Selection Committee. I think this comes down to those second-level wins: those wins that aren’t against ranked teams but against teams with respectable records. If the Irish win out, they’re in. We like the body of work we’ve put out there, but right now that doesn’t matter.