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The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season were unveiled, and Alabama secured the No. 5 position. The Crimson Tide's placement comes just before their highly anticipated game at LSU on Saturday.
Alabama holds a 6-2 record and is ranked eight spots ahead of Tennessee, which also sits at 6-2. This is despite the Tide suffering a 16-point defeat to the Volunteers only a few weeks ago. Such a discrepancy highlights the unpredictability that has defined the college football season thus far.
The College Football Playoff selection committee, tasked with making sense of the chaos, delivered a ranking that raised more than a few eyebrows. Undefeated Miami claimed the top spot, followed by Georgia at No. 2 and undefeated Utah at No. 3. Beyond that, the 13 committee members might as well have been drawing names from a hat.
Defending champion Indiana was placed fourth, eight spots ahead of Ohio State. The Hoosiers defeated the Buckeyes 19-15 last month, but Ohio State has since lost quarterback Julian Sayin. Notre Dame, meanwhile, landed at No. 11, seven spots lower than its AP Top 25 ranking. The message for the Irish is clear: as the last team in the projected bracket, they must defeat Miami on Saturday or risk falling due to a schedule that failed to impress the committee.
"A very, very good football team," committee chair Hunter Yurachek said of Notre Dame. "But when you look at Notre Dame's schedule and the wins they have versus the teams ahead of them, they don't have that signature win right now."
Ohio State was ranked 12th but would be outside the bracket because Boise State, ranked 25th, would receive the Group of Six automatic bid. It would have been easy to attribute the Buckeyes' drop to their freshman quarterback, Luke Fahey, but Yurachek said the committee was more concerned with Ohio State's defense in its 30-18 loss to a 20th-ranked USC team that has yet to impress.
Regarding the gaps between Indiana and Ohio State, and Alabama and Tennessee, Yurachek referenced a controversial precedent from last year: head-to-head matchups only factor in when teams are in the same four-team pod (1-4, 5-8, 9-12). "Yes, they had that loss to Tennessee," Yurachek said of the Tide. "But Tennessee doesn't have that same level of quality wins. Yes, they beat Alabama, but you have to go deeper to find Tennessee's next-best win. Maybe it will come Saturday against Kentucky."
Meanwhile, Yurachek noted that the Tide earned significant praise in the selection room for a September win against Mississippi State, before the Bulldogs were ravaged by the injury to quarterback Kamario Taylor. Mississippi State is currently 2-4.
Key Analysis
The initial rankings are the first of six weekly reveals, with the final bracket set for Sunday, Dec. 6. The playoffs begin with four games on the campuses of seeds 5-8 on Dec. 18-19, and the national championship will be held Jan. 25 in Las Vegas.
In addition to Miami-Notre Dame, other key games this week include BYU at Utah with Big 12 implications, Alabama at No. 14 LSU in a game that will hand one contender its third loss, and Kentucky-Tennessee, which will either give the Wildcats their second loss or the Volunteers their third.
The committee's treatment of the SEC was a major question, given that the conference has six two-loss teams, two one-loss teams, and no undefeated teams, yet accounts for 13 of the nation's 20 toughest schedules. The answer: a nation-leading 10 SEC teams made the top 25, even if their positioning raised eyebrows. "This has been such a crazy football season, filled with unbelievable parity through the first eight weeks," Yurachek said. "But you look at the matchups this weekend. We believe as a committee there will be a significant amount of movement within the entire top-25 ranking."
The SEC's gain was the ACC's loss. The next ACC team after Miami was Wake Forest at No. 16. The Demon Deacons have only one loss, to the Hurricanes, and can control their fate by winning their way to a rematch with Miami in the ACC title game.
Other notable matchups include No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Alabama, No. 11 Notre Dame at No. 6 Kentucky, and No. 9 BYU at No. 8 UCLA.
Originally reported by headtopics.