The top four stayed the same for the third week in a row in the fourth installment of the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night, but a chaotic Saturday brought plenty more changes to the playoff picture.
No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State remain atop the selection committee’s rankings entering the final week of the regular season. Indiana (10-1) dropped five spots to No. 10 following its 38-15 loss at Ohio State but remains in position to earn a CFP bid with a win over Purdue (1-10).
“We viewed Indiana, they played well at times against Ohio State,” Warde Manuel, chair of the CFP committee, said on ESPN’s rankings release show Tuesday night.
“We were impressed with some of the things that Indiana did. And they dropped five, but we still felt that their body of work was strong enough to remain in the top 10.”
Notre Dame replaced the Hoosiers at No. 5 following its 49-14 rout of undefeated Army, which dropped out of the committee’s top 25 this week. Miami (No. 6), Georgia (No. 7), Tennessee (No. 8) and SMU (No. 9) join Indiana in rounding out the top 10.
THE UPDATED CFP TOP 25 HAS DROPPED 👀 pic.twitter.com/p4pom73Np0
— ESPN (@espn) November 27, 2024
Using the current CFP rankings, Oregon (Big Ten), Texas (SEC), Miami (ACC) and No. 11 Boise State (Mountain West) would be the four highest-rated conference champions and would earn first-round byes in the 12-team bracket. No. 16 Arizona State (Big 12) would earn a playoff bid as the fifth-highest-rated conference champion but would be the No. 12 seed and would play a first-round game.
The seedings for the first-round matchups would look like this: No. 12 Arizona State at No. 5 Ohio State; No. 11 Indiana at No. 6 Penn State; No. 10 SMU at No. 7 Notre Dame; and No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Georgia.
When asked Saturday whether the Hoosiers still belong in the 12-team field based on their body of work, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti replied, “Is that a serious question? I’m not even going to answer that one. The answer’s so obvious.” The first-year coach then smiled and nodded yes with a wink.
No. 12 Clemson would be the first team left out of the playoff, with the Tigers ranked ahead of three-loss SEC bubble teams Alabama (No. 13), Ole Miss (No. 14) and South Carolina (No. 15). But the ACC landing three teams in the top 12 this week could be an encouraging…
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