CFP rankings revealed
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The fourth College Football Playoff rankings are here. A new team entered the top five while the bottom half of the top 10 — and the playoff field — has a new look. No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State made up the top four spots as revealed Tuesday night. But No. 1 Oregon, No. 3 Texas, No. 6 Miami (Fl.) and No. 11 Boise State earned the four byes as the four highest-ranked conference champions.
Before we dig into what to know in the poll, here’s the top 25:
THE NEXT RANKINGS: Here’s the schedule for when the next CFP rankings release
There’s plenty of time and games to play before the final CFP rankings are decided, but if the season ended today, this would be the playoff bracket:
HOW IT WORKS: Here’s everything you need to know for how the 12-team CFP works
1 seed — No. 1 Oregon
2 seed — No. 3 Texas
3 seed — No. 6 Miami (FL)
4 seed — No. 11 Boise State
The top four seeds remain the same this week after every team won. Boise State still gets the No. 4. seed out of the Mountain West Conference, as the Broncos are ranked above any team from the Big 12.
(12 seed) No. 16 Arizona State at (5 seed) No. 2 Ohio State
(11 seed) No. 10 Indiana at (6 seed) No. 4 Penn State
(10 seed) No. 9 SMU at (7 seed) No. 5 Notre Dame
(9 seed) No. 8 Tennessee at (8 seed) No. 7 Georgia
This is the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff. The four highest-ranked conference champions receive the top four seeds, with the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion also being guaranteed a playoff spot.
Notre Dame’s seed line moves up to the No. 7 seed this week and No. 7 Georgia is now hosting a playoff game in the projected bracket as the No. 8 seed. Three of the four home teams in the first round are in cold-weather states.
No. 9 SMU and No. 10 Indiana are the last two teams with at-large spots in the bracket. Both teams only have one loss, but rank behind two-loss SEC teams Georgia and Tennessee. All of the aformentioned teams except Indiana and Tennessee are currently in line to play in their conferences championship games.
No. 16 Arizona State moved up five spots after knocking off BYU to become the highest-ranked Big 12 team and get a spot in the playoff bracket as the fifth projected conference champion.
LAST WEEK’S RECAP: Florida upsets No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 2 Ohio State ends No. 5 Indiana’s undefeated streak in Week 13 of college football
No. 12 Clemson is the first team out of the bracket. Clemson moved up five spots, but its the first team out because the fifth-highest ranked conference champion is ranked below it. The Tigers have a ranked game against South Carolina to close the regular season, but still might need some help to make the ACC Championship to compete for an automatic-bid.
No. 13 Alabama, No. 14 Ole Miss and No. 15 South Carolina are the first highest-ranked three-loss teams on the bubble. Only South Carolina has a ranked game remaining, playing Clemson to close the season in a bubble elimination game. Could the Gamecocks become the highest-ranked three-loss team next week with a win? Regardless, all three of the teams will likely need some help from teams like Purdue, Vanderbilt or Georgia Tech to land upsets that shake up the rankings.
LOOKING AHEAD: 2024-25 College Football Playoff schedule, dates, TV channel, sites
Currently, the SEC and Big Ten lead all conferences with four teams in the projected CFP field. No other conference has more than one team.
PERFECT: Here are the remaining undefeated FBS teams
No. 17 Tulane could make a run to become the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion. The Big 12’s projected champion is No. 16 Arizona State, only one spot ahead of Tulane out of the AAC. A few losses to close the season could land the Green Wave in the bracket.
Elsewhere, No. 22 UNLV moved up in the rankings. UNLV would own the Mountain West tiebreaker over Colorado State if both teams finished with the same conference record, meaning the Rebels would play in the conference championship game. That means Boise State would play one more ranked opponent to close the season, giving the Mountain West a better shot at an auto-bid to the playoffs.
Stan Becton joined NCAA.com in 2021 and has since served as an FCS, track and field, cross country and HBCU beat reporter. He has covered numerous NCAA championship events, including the FCS Championship, DI Track & Field Championships and Men’s Frozen Four. Additionally, he has covered the 2022 College Football Playoff’s Peach Bowl and HBCU sporting events like the Celebration Bowl and Legacy Classic. Stan graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, earning a degree in Professional Writing and playing football as a five-year letterman. You can follow him on Twitter @stan_becton.
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