Notre Dame came in at a lofty No. 3, Georgia became a fresh No. 1 and Oklahoma appeared ahead of Ohio State, No. 5 to No. 6, answering the burning questions as the 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee produced its first rankings of the season on Tuesday night.
In sitting at No. 1 ahead of No. 2 Alabama based on Georgia’s two wins over other ranked teams — No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 16 Mississippi State — as well as Alabama’s opening victim, Florida State, careening to 2-5, Georgia became only the fourth program ever ranked No. 1 in the four seasons and 20 rankings of the College Football Playoff concept. Before Tuesday, only Mississippi State, Alabama and Clemson had sat atop the list. The committee does not issue postseason rankings.
Improbably, the committee wound up looking at nine weeks of college football results and determining that a semi-hidden game of Sept. 10, when Georgia took its No. 15 ranking in the Associated Press to Notre Dame, which held down No. 24, actually featured two of the top three teams. Georgia (8-0) won that game, 20-19. If Notre Dame (7-1), an independent, can hold onto a top-four spot through a challenging balance of its schedule, with trips to Miami (Fla.) and Stanford, it could become the first season in which two or more of the Power Five conferences become excluded from the playoff.
Of particular interest was Clemson (7-1), the defending national champion. With its impressive wins over No. 14 Auburn, at No. 13 Virginia Tech and at Louisville, the Tigers had more than enough mustard to surmount their upset loss at Syracuse on Oct. 13, which featured the exit of Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant because of injury.
Just behind Clemson, the committee made its ruling on the much-discussed Oklahoma-Ohio State question. While the two predominant weekly polls have Ohio State gapingly ahead of Oklahoma despite Oklahoma’s 31-16 win at Ohio State on Sept. 10, the committee saw fit to reward that win, placing the Sooners (7-1) at No. 5 and the Buckeyes (7-1) at No. 6.
Just as Penn State (7-1) wound up one point behind the Buckeyes on Saturday in a 39-38 fracas, it wound up one ranking behind the Buckeyes starting off this time, at No. 7.
Through the first three seasons, the top fours in the initial rankings included only five of the 12 eventual playoff qualifiers: Florida State at No. 2 in 2014, Clemson at No. 1 and Alabama at No. 4 in 2015, and Alabama at No. 1 and Clemson at No. 2 in 2016. Ohio State opened at No. 16 in 2014, then wound up as national champion; Oklahoma opened at No. 15 in 2015, then wound up in the playoff.
Behind Penn State and No. 8 TCU (7-1) came an intriguing portion of the list. Beyond Georgia and Alabama (8-0), only two Power Five teams remain unbeaten, and the committee stashed them at Nos. 9 and 10. It did so because No. 9 Wisconsin (8-0) and No. 10 Miami (Fla.) (7-0) have beaten zero ranked teams between them. Miami will have a chance this weekend, when it plays No. 13 Virginia Tech, as well as next weekend, when it plays Notre Dame.
The top Pacific-12 team was Washington (7-1), at No. 12. The top two-loss team was No. 14 Auburn (6-2), and while a two-loss team has not made the College Football Playoff, the Tigers have meetings with Georgia and Alabama that might give them a chance. The top Group of Five team, bidding for that group’s annual New Year’s Six bowl bid, was Central Florida, perched at No. 18 with its 7-0 record.
Ahead of it by two spots lay the feel-good story of the year, longtime straggler Iowa State, which rode its two wins over top-five teams (Oklahoma and TCU) to No. 15.