The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season wasted no time stirring the pot.
Released Tuesday on “College Football Top 25,” the committee’s opening board looked nothing like the AP Top 25 from Sunday, and that gap is where the noise started. Notre Dame landed seven spots lower in the CFP rankings than in the AP poll.
Alabama checked in four spots higher. Indiana’s placement over Ohio State raised eyebrows.
And with Week 10 loaded with ranked-on-ranked matchups, the whole thing feels built for a shakeup.
Committee chairman Hunter Yurachek leaned into the chaos on ESPN.
“This has been such a crazy football season filled with unbelievable parity through the first eight weeks,” Yurachek said on the ESPN telecast. “There are a number of football games to be played.
Just look at the matchups coming this weekend. … We’re looking forward to the task at hand, and it will be a difficult task each week.”
That task gets real fast. Seven games in Week 10 feature teams in the CFP Top 25, and the rankings already set up a fresh round of arguments.
The SEC came out looking strong, and not just because it placed 10 teams in the rankings. Five of them are in the top 10, which would put them inside the 12-team field right now. The conference also had a better showing in the CFP rankings than in the AP poll across the board, with Georgia the lone exception at the same spot in both.
Here’s how the SEC teams stack up:
Georgia: No. 2 in both polls.
Alabama: No. 5 in the CFP, No. 9 in the AP.
Kentucky: No. 6 in the CFP, No. 8 in the AP.
Texas: No. 7 in the CFP, No. 10 in the AP.
Ole Miss: No. 10 in the CFP, No. 12 in the AP.
Tennessee: No. 13 in the CFP, No. 16 in the AP.
LSU: No. 14 in the CFP, No. 15 in the AP.
Missouri: No. 18 in the CFP, No. 19 in the AP.
South Carolina: No. 21 in the CFP, No. 23 in the AP.
Florida: No. 24 in the CFP, No. 25 in the AP.
That kind of spread does nothing to quiet the “SEC bias” talk. The committee has the SEC as the strongest conference to this point, and the rankings reflect that belief: Georgia is the highest one-loss team, Alabama the highest two-loss team and South Carolina the highest three-loss team.
Indiana was another eye-opener. The Hoosiers are the top Big Ten team at No. 4, even though they lost head-to-head to Ohio State and even though No.
8 UCLA is the only unbeaten team left in the league. Indiana has survived with four one-score Big Ten wins, including a 23-16 overtime escape against Minnesota in Week 9, and it has not beaten anyone currently in the Top 25.
Still, Curt Cignetti’s team is in position for a third straight College Football Playoff appearance with a 10-win season, and a Nov. 14 game against No. 20 USC could help lock that in.
Notre Dame is on the other end of the committee’s generosity. The Irish sit seven spots below their AP ranking, and Yurachek explained why.
“They are a very good football team, but when you look at Notre Dame’s schedule and the wins that they have vs. the teams that are ahead of them, they don’t have that signature win right now,” Yurachek said.
That puts Saturday’s matchup with Miami in a harsh spotlight. It’s the best meeting between those programs since “Catholics vs.
Convicts” in 1988, and while the AP poll treats it like a top-five showdown, the committee is making Notre Dame prove it. A loss could leave the Irish outside the top 12 and without the safety net that comes with it.
Ohio State is in a similarly tight spot. The Buckeyes are the first team out of the bracket at No. 12, and the committee addressed the 30-18 loss to USC in Week 8.
“I don’t want the burden all on the freshman quarterback,” Yuracheck said. “Their offense played fairly well. They were held to four field goals through three-and-a-half quarters, but their defense gave up some really big, explosive plays.”
Ohio State’s path is still there. Oregon is the last ranked team left on the schedule, and four wins in November would likely send the Buckeyes into the Big Ten championship game. But the message from the committee is clear: another loss, and they’re probably done.
The Group of 6 picture remains familiar. Boise State is the only Group of 6 team in the rankings at No. 25, while New Mexico was left out. That means the committee is still treating the Group of 6 spot like a courtesy rather than a true equal, and the debate over an automatic berth for the No. 25 team versus an at-large Power 4 team will keep rolling.
It also looks like this won’t be a year with multiple Group of 6 teams in the field. Last season, Tulane and James Madison both lost their first-round games by an average of 24 points.
Here is the full CFP Top 25 heading into Week 10:
- Miami (8-0)
- Georgia (7-1)
- Utah (8-0)
- Indiana (8-1)
- Alabama (6-2)
- Kentucky (7-1)
- Texas (6-2)
- UCLA (8-0)
- BYU (7-1)
- Ole Miss (6-2)
- Notre Dame (7-1)
- Ohio State (6-2)
- Tennessee (6-2)
- LSU (6-2)
- Texas Tech (7-1)
- Wake Forest (7-1)
- Houston (6-2)
- Missouri (6-2)
- Iowa (6-2)
- USC (7-2)
- South Carolina (5-3)
- Arizona (6-2)
- Oregon (5-3)
- Florida (5-3)
- Boise State (7-1)
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