The latest College Football Playoff rankings have kept the top five teams unchanged, with Ohio State leading the pack, followed by Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Georgia. The newcomers in the rankings are USF and Cincinnati, which have entered the bracket. The selection committee has chosen to keep Indiana at No. 2, highlighting their strong performance throughout the season and their comeback victory over Penn, which kept them undefeated. BYU and Oklahoma have been displaced from the rankings, with USF replacing BYU and Miami potentially replacing Oklahoma in the bracket if the season ended today. The top four teams (Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M, and Alabama) will each receive a first-round bye.
After a thrilling week of games, there was one big question regarding the top squads in the rankings: How would the selection committee view the Hoosiers’ comeback victory over Penn State on the road? Fernando Mendoza, with 36 seconds left at Beaver Stadium, found Omar Cooper Jr. for a 7-yard touchdown pass, where the latter made a miraculous effort to not only secure the football but also get his foot in bounds for the play to stand. Indiana went up 27-24 and kept its undefeated season alive. The Nittany Lions have now lost six straight games and have seen their season go downhill, leading to the firing of James Franklin as head coach.
However, the selection committee decided to keep its second rankings intact at the top. “It was one of our longer discussions in our meeting,” CFP committee chair Mack Rhoads, who serves as athletic director at Baylor, told ESPN on Tuesday night about the Hoosiers remaining at No. 2. “Indiana, we gave them the edge defensively, and certainly, offensively, as well. You think about Indiana’s body of work. … Indiana found a way to find a way.” Meanwhile, the Aggies blew out another ranked opponent, defeating Missouri, which is no longer in the top 25, on the road.
Looking at more of the top 12, the Red Raiders moved up two spots from No. 8 to No. 6 after a dominant 29-7 win over BYU over the weekend. Unfortunately for the Cougars, their first loss meant dropping five spots from the initial ranking to No. 12. Rhoads said the committee saw a “convincing win” by Texas Tech over BYU. In the middle of the pack, Utah was ranked No. 13 by the committee, with Vanderbilt, Miami, Georgia Tech, USC, Michigan, Virginia, and Louisville following. To round out the top 25, the committee chose Iowa, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, USF, and Cincinnati in that order. USF and Cincinnati were both first-timers in the rankings. As mentioned, Missouri fell out of the top 25, and so did Washington after losing this past week.