Hamilton: Most teams stay the course before first CFP rankings reveal

The future will be decided today.

Or at least a glimpse of the direction for how things are headed.

Its not something thats been taken lightly, either.

There have been heated debates over style versus substance ; arguments over the merits and minuses of resumes; and endless lobbying for one candidate over another.

And so much anxious hand-wringing as decisions are solidified that will have long-lasting repercussions.

Because the final vote, regardless of the outcome, will always be analyzed, scrutinized and criticized.

Always.

The candidates can only reconcile any misgivings or regrets concerning what theyve done up to this point.

Whats done is done.

All that can happen now is try to minimize the damage and maintain the image that they should be selected.

That leaves us to pray that the right choices indeed, whats best for all of us are the ones being made.

Takeaways from Gamecocks' rout of Texas A&M So are you prepared for the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2024 season to be revealed tonight? Status quo: Oregon and Georgia remain in place at the very top of the rankings.

Oregon is still No.

1 after beating Michigan 38-17, followed by Georgia.

The Bulldogs played with their food before beating Florida 34-20 .

Flip-flopper: Ohio State moved up to the No.

3 position after winning at Penn State 20-13.

The Nittany Lions dropped four spots to seventh.

Negative ad: What happened at Memorial Stadium on Saturday wasnt a great look for Clemson nor the ACC.

The Tigers (6-2, 5-1) took a 33-21 loss to Louisville, their first to the Cardinals in nine meetings.

It halted a six-game wave of momentum Clemson had built to overcome a season-opening loss to Georgia.

And, most critically, it will likely keep the Tigers out of the CFP for the fourth straight year.

That means the odds of the ACC getting more than one team into the playoff took a hit as well.

SMU beat Pittsburgh (7-1, 3-1) 48-25.

The Mustangs (8-1, 5-0) and Miami (9-0, 5-0) are the only teams undefeated in conference play with three weeks remaining in the regular season.

Hamilton: Price of college football's many changes are more than fair To compound matters, Clemson is also tempering the fallout from fans tossing debris onto the field following a controversial fourth-quarter call.

Play was delayed while more than a dozen staffers and cheerleaders cleared the field mainly of plastic bottles.

Red state: Notre Dame (7-1) keeps recovering from its Week 2 upset loss to Northern Illinois and is again positioned to make a run at a CFP spot.

But the Fighting Irish arent the top-ranked team in their own state.

Indiana continues to weave together an incredible story during Curt Cignettis first season as head coach, moving up three spots to eighth after dismantling Michigan State 47-10 .

The Hoosiers (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) are off to the best start in team history and are tied atop the conference with No.

1 Oregon.

Mavericks: Army and Boise State are the only Group of 5 teams in the rankings and they keep climbing.

The Broncos (7-1, 4-0 Mountain West) moved up to 15th after beating San Diego State 56-24.

The Black Knights (8-0, 6-0 AAC) are 20th by virtue of a 20-3 win over Air Force.

Political dynasty: All four of the Big Tens ranked teams are inside the top eight.

But remember: Only one can get an opening-round playoff bye as the 12-team format stipulates the top four spots go to the highest-ranked conference champions.

Hanging chad: Washington State (7-1) is not only sticking around the rankings, the Cougars moved up a few spots by virtue of shuffling ahead of them.

Theyre representing the Pac-12/Pac-2 at No.

21.

Unseated: Illinois and Kansas State are no longer in the top 25 after each lost to an unranked opponent.

Minnesota beat the Illini (6-3, 3-3 Big 10) 25-17.

It was Illinois second loss in a row.

Meanwhile, Houston scored twice in the fourth quarter to beat Kansas State 24-19.

It was the Cougars first win over a ranked team in more than three years and snapped the Wildcats (7-2, 4-2 Big 12) four-game winning streak.

Absentee ballots: Eight teams didnt play during Week 10, including top-10 squads Texas, Notre Dame and BYU.

Landslides: Seven games involving a ranked team were settled by at least 21 points, including three with deficits of 32 points or more.

SMUs 23-point win over Pitt was the lone matchup of top-25 opponents.

October surprise: On the weekend before Election Day, South Carolina pulled off a massive win by beating then-No.

8 Texas A&M 44-20.

It was the largest margin of victory of the four games in which a top-25 team lost to an unranked opponent.

It was also enough to thrust the Gamecocks into the rankings for the first time this season, landing at No.

25.

In its last three games, South Carolina (5-3, 3-3 SEC) has lost at Alabama by two points, smoked Oklahoma in Norman and dominated the last undefeated team in the SEC.

Up next: a trip to Nashville to play Vanderbilt (6-3, 3-2 SEC), which returned to the rankings this week at No.

24.

Just how bad was Clemson's loss to Louisville? Here are takeaways from an ACC stumble Super PAC: With the addition of South Carolina and Vanderbilt, the SEC now has 10 ranked teams.

Thats six more than both the Big Ten and ACC.

The Big 12 has three, followed by one each from the AAC, Pac-12/Pac-2 and Mountain West.

Notre Dame, as usual, is the lone independent.

Scott Hamiltons rankings (last week): 1.

Oregon (1) 2.

Georgia (2) 3.

Ohio State (4) 4.

Miami (5) 5.

Texas (6) 6.

Tennessee (7) 7.

Penn State (3) 8.

Indiana (11) 9.

Notre Dame (10) 10.

BYU (12) 11.

Alabama (15) 12.

SMU (20) 13.

LSU (16) 14.

Ole Miss (17) 15.

Boise State (18) 16.

Texas A&M (8) 17.

Iowa State (13) 18.

Clemson (9) 19.

Colorado (21) 20.

Army (22) 21.

Washington State (24) 22.

Missouri (25) 23.

Pittsburgh (19) 24.

Vanderbilt (NR) 25.

South Carolina (NR).

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