10. Utah Utes 8-1 (8)
The Utes didn’t play this week, but it’ll drop just a bit because of what happened on a big Saturday. The only decent win is over Washington on the road, but the loss to USC will be worse than Penn State’s loss to Minnesota, so …
9. Penn State Nittany Lions 8-1 (4)
So how much will the committee punish the Nittany Lions for the one big loss at Minnesota? That it happened on the road will help top the slide to around here. It’ll be a drop, but it won’t go much further than this considering the wins over Iowa and Michigan on the resumé. Penn State still controls its own destiny. It’ll get in if it wins out.
8. Baylor Bears 9-0 (12)
How much love will the committee give to winning at TCU? A lot. It’ll like the 9-0 record, it’ll give credit for grinding out wins, and it’ll give enough respect to a road victory to bump it past Oklahoma – where it should’ve been last week.
7. Oregon Ducks 8-1 (7)
Technically, the committee got this wrong in the first rankings. Oregon should be ranked behind Auburn and Florida, but it wasn’t, and it’s not going to be knocked down this week, either.
It didn’t play anyone this week so it’ll stay in its spot, and it doesn’t have any big games coming up until – maybe – the Pac-12 Championship. Here’s the problem.The best win is at Washington, and that’s about it. Auburn’s best win? Oregon.
6. Minnesota Golden Gophers 9-0 (17)
Totally disrespected in the first go round – the lowest-ranked unbeaten Power Five program in Week 1 of the CFP rankings in the six-year history – the committee will make up for it after the win over the No. 4 team.
The big issue was the lack of a good win, but that’s no longer an issue after beating last-week No. 4 Penn State. Technically, the Gophers should be higher than this considering it now has the second-best win – LSU’s win over Bama is the only better one – according to the CFP’s own judgement.
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5. Georgia Bulldogs 8-1 (6)
Appalachian State 20, South Carolina 15.
It might be tempting to put the Bulldogs in the top four with wins over Notre Dame and Florida – Alabama isn’t close to coming up with anything that good – but the home loss to a Gamecocks is going to be just enough to keep it out of the penthouse. It doesn’t matter, considering this is one of just seven teams that controls its own destiny. Win out, get in.
4. Alabama Crimson Tide 8-1 (3)
It’s going to be a fantastic debate – who has Alabama beaten?
There’s a case to be made that Bama’s win at Texas A&M is better than Clemson’s best win is at home over the Aggies, but that’s it. The second-best win is over … Tennessee? One side of the room will be howling that Bama’s schedule is week, and the other side will not the over 500 yards of total offense in the loss to the team that’s now the No. 1 team in the country.
Remember, these are all placeholder rankings – they’re not set in stone. But the committee won’t punish Bama too much for the big-time loss.
3. Clemson Tigers 10-0 (5)
This will be the ultimate eye-test ranking. Clemson doesn’t pass any resumé test, and it’s probably not here it it was Wake Forest or Duke, but it’s ripping everyone apart. Yeah, it’s a bad schedule, but the Tigers are doing what you’re supposed to do against mediocrity, scoring 45 or more in each of the last five games and 55 or more in each of the last three.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes 9-0 (1)
There’s absolutely nothing to get into a twist over. It started out as the No. 1, and it makes no difference if it’s 1 or 4 or 3 or 2, as long as it’s one of them. It might seem absolutely insane to drop a spot after winning a game 73-14, but again, whatever. LSU beat Bama at Bama – there’s going to earn the top spot.
1. LSU Tigers 9-0 (2)
The committee has moved down teams before that won in a big blowout – most notably, TCU in the 2014 rankings from the No. 3 spot in the end. Ohio State will fall one place, but it took the win of all wins this year to do it.
LSU should’ve been No. 1 last week. It beat the CFP’s own 10th (Florida) and 11th (Auburn) ranked teams, and the strength-of-schedule thing compared to Ohio State? It’s one game – the win over Northwestern State – that screwed it up.
LSU just beat the CFP No. 3 team in the country on the road. That’s more than enough to push up to the top spot.
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