The SEC occupied two spots in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, but Alabama continues to be sitting in waiting. Mississippi State remains on top of the ranking for a second striaght week, followed by Florida State. Auburn is ranked third following a win against Ole Miss, but Oregon now occupies the fourth and final spot in the latest top four.
Alabama is the so-called first-team out at this point, but it is important to remember that the only ranking that will matter will come at the end of the season. Alabama will play at home against Mississippi State and Auburn in November, so things will continue to be settled on the field. TCU though, is beginning to make some movement as well, and could be ready to take advantage of any team ahead of them when one slips up.
Quick Observations
Georgia and Ole Miss took the big hits this week following losses. Georgia fell nine spots and Ole Miss dropped seven spots.
There are no Group of Five schools ranked this week. East Carolina fell out of the ranking after losing at Temple this weekend. Where the committee has Marshall or Colorado State on the radar would be nice to at least know, but this will have plenty of time to be fixed before the end of the season.
The committee has plenty of respect for the Pac-12 and the Big 12. Utah stood from at No. 17 despite losing this past weekend. Kansas State jumped Michigan State after the Spartans had a week off. Some will take this as a sign of why the Big Ten should be worried, but the reality is there is still plenty of time for the Big Ten to move up. The loser of this weekend’s TCU-Kansas State game will drop behind the winner of the Michigan State-Ohio State game, in all likelihood.
Notre Dame remains tenth in the ranking, just where the Irish were a week ago. Notre Dame will have a chance to prove something this week against an Arizona State team that appears to be impressing the committee. The Sun Devils jumped up five spots this week to sneak just past Notre Dame into the top ten.
Baylor’s weak strength of schedule continues to hurt the Bears. Ranked No. 12, Baylor is ranked behind two-loss Ole Miss.