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andrea adelson
Ohio State The No. 1 team overtook its fellow undefeated teams in the first rankings released Tuesday by the College Football Playoff selection committee. Indiana at number 2 and Texas A&M At number 3.
Three SEC teams followed the Aggies alabama at No. 4, Georgia at No. 5 and Ole Miss at No. 6.
BYU, Texas Tech, Oregon and Notre Dame round out the top 10. The top ACC team is No. 14 Virginia. Every team in the top 25 came from Power 4 conferences, so the committee named Memphis as the top team from the Group of 5.
The five highest-ranked conference champions will make up the 12-team field, but there is a change in the format this year as the committee is using a direct seeding model. The top four teams in the final rankings, regardless of conference championship, will receive a first-round bye.
If the playoffs were today, the first-round games would be: Memphis at Georgia; Virginia at Ole Miss; Notre Dame at BYU; and Oregon at Texas Tech.
The SEC had nine teams ranked in the top 25, while the Big Ten had seven, the ACC had five and the Big 12 had three.
Despite the two losses, Notre Dame is in position to make the CFP as an at-large team for the second consecutive season. While the Irish’s only notable win is over No. 19 USC, both of their losses in the first two weeks of the season came in the final minutes to No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 18 Miami.
Despite the same number of losses and a head-to-head win over the Irish, Miami is ranked 18th – eight spots lower than Notre Dame after losing 26-20 in overtime to SMU last weekend. While the Hurricanes have more notable wins, their loss has them out of the 12-team field, which could lead to a repeat of last year.
Although Texas and the quarterback arch manning Looking shaky at times during the season, the Longhorns are ranked 11th after a big win over No. 16 Vanderbilt. They also beat Oklahoma 23-6 last month. Unlike Miami and Notre Dame, that number of head-to-head wins separates Texas and the No. 12 Sooners, who both have the same 7-2 record.
Utah is 13th, Virginia is 14th and Louisville is 15th. The Cards have a win over Miami but lost to the Cavaliers earlier this season.
Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Miami, USC, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Washington, Pitt and Tennessee round out the top 25. The Vols are the only team in the rankings with three losses.
The final CFP rankings will be announced on December 7, with the conference championship games played the following day.
The four first-round games will be played on December 19 and 20 at the home venues of the higher-seeded teams. The four quarterfinal games will be played in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, the Capital One Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential and the Allstate Sugar Bowl on December 31 and January 1.
The two semifinal games will take place on January 8 and 9 at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
The CFP National Championship is scheduled for January 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
