Alabama rises to No. 3 in College Football Playoff rankings
ACTION 8 LACE UP SPORTS (WAKA) – Alabama has moved up two places to No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings, following its 31-13 victory over LSU.
That ranking would give Alabama a first-round bye as one of the top four teams. Alabama is the highest-rank two-loss team.
Elsewhere, Georgia moved into the top spot, while Notre Dame moved up six notches to No. 5 and leapfrogged two spots ahead of Miami on the strength of its win over the Hurricanes last weekend.
The second of the CFP’s six rankings reveals had its usual share of head-scratchers, as well, starting with Indiana dropping five spots to No. 9 despite not playing last weekend.
That, along with undefeated UCLA’s move up four spots to No. 4 looked like another “correction” by a selection committee that, by most accounts, had a rough opening week.
“I don’t think it was an admission of them being too low,” said Hunter Yurachek, the chair of the 13-person selection committee who delivered on last week’s promise of lots of movement in this week’s rankings.
There are three more Tuesday-night rankings shows before the bracket is set on Dec. 6 — the day after the last round of conference title games that will go by the wayside when the playoff expands to 24 teams next season.
As of right now, No. 12 Texas Tech would be the first team out, with No. 24 Boise State of the Pac-12 getting the last spot as the best team among the Group of Six.
College Football Playoff Rankings
- Georgia (8-1) – first-round bye
- Utah (9-0) – first-round bye
- Alabama (7-2) – first-round bye
- UCLA (9-0) – first-round bye
- Notre Dame (8-1)
- Texas (7-2)
- Miami (8-1)
- Tennessee (7-2)
- Indiana (8-1)
- BYU (7-2)
- Kentucky (7-2)
- Texas Tech (8-1) – First team out of playoffs to make room for No. 24 Boise State
- Wake Forest (8-1)
- Houston (7-2)
- Iowa (7-2)
- Oregon (6-3)
- South Carolina (6-3)
- USC (7-2)
- Ole Miss (6-3)
- Ohio State (6-3)
- LSU (6-3)
- Missouri (6-3)
- Arizona (7-2)
- Boise State (8-1) – In playoffs as top-ranked Group of Six team
- Oklahoma State (6-3)
Miami’s six-spot drop was severe for a team that lost by a touchdown on the road and was without arguably its best player, Malachi Toney.
“You have that combination of Miami losing as a No. 1 team and then five teams behind them having some signature wins,” Yurachek said. “The committee thought moving those teams ahead of Miami was the right thing to do.”
Yurachek explained that Indiana was “probably a victim of having a bye week at the wrong time.” That the biggest weekend of the season thus far also involved losses by three teams the Hoosiers had previously beaten did nothing for the their strength of schedule.
And UCLA’s two-touchdown pull-away over a Minnesota team that took the Hoosiers to overtime the week before, made the Bruins “look like the number-four team in the country,” Yurachek said.
UCLA and Utah are the lone remaining undefeated teams in BCS.
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