After a weekend in which two of the top three – and four of the top nine – teams lost, the College Football Playoff rankings face major upheaval.
When the playoff selection committee releases a new set of rankings Tuesday night, it will make adjustments to reflect lopsided losses by previously No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Notre Dame, as well as defeats by No. 6 TCU and No. 9 Washington.
Georgia’s 40-17 loss at Auburn will send the Bulldogs tumbling from their two-week perch atop the committee’s rankings, presumably to be replaced by previously No. 2 Alabama.
If the Associated Press and coaches’ polls are any indication, Georgia’s fall will be substantial. The Bulldogs tumbled Sunday to No. 7 in those polls after ranking No. 2 in both last week.
Unbeaten Alabama, which survived the upset-filled Saturday by overcoming a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Mississippi State 31-24, remained No. 1 in both the AP and coaches’ polls. And unbeaten Miami soared to No. 2 in both of those polls on the basis of its 41-8 rout of Notre Dame, putting coach Mark Richt’s Hurricanes five spots ahead of his former Georgia team.
The playoff selection committee previously expressed reservations about Miami’s schedule, ranking the Hurricanes No. 7 last week. But the committee had given Georgia much credit for winning by one point at Notre Dame in September, so it now figures to reward Miami for a much more commanding win over the Fighting Irish, albeit at home.
Clemson and Oklahoma also appear positioned to claim spots in this week’s CFP top four. Clemson, which was No. 4 last week, defeated Florida State 31-14, while Oklahoma, which was No. 5, defeated TCU 38-20.
lt also will be interesting to see what the selection committee does with Wisconsin, which it ranked No. 8 last week. The Badgers have played a weak schedule but remained undefeated with a 38-14 win over No 20 Iowa.
The AP and coaches’ polls, which have no bearing on the playoff race, had the same three teams in the 3-4-5 positions Sunday, but in different orders. AP ranked Oklahoma No. 3, Clemson No. 4 and Wisconsin No. 5. The coaches put Clemson No. 3, Wisconsin No. 4 and Oklahoma No. 5.
Both the AP and coaches’ polls ranked Auburn No. 6, ahead of once-beaten Georgia, reflecting Saturday’s head-to-head result.
Auburn, the CFP committee’s No. 10 team last week, has lost twice, but both losses were to ranked opponents on the road, including an eight-point defeat at Clemson in early September. And now Auburn has a rout of last week’s No. 1 team on its resume.
Even if Georgia lands as low as seventh in the CFP rankings Tuesday, the Bulldogs still have a path to the playoff: winning their final two regular-season games against Kentucky and Georgia Tech, then beating Alabama or Auburn in the SEC Championship game at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium to take a 12-1 record into “Selection Sunday.”
Still, there’s no precedent in the four-year history of the CFP for a No. 1 team to lose as badly as the Bulldogs did to Auburn. None of the four previous losses by CFP No. 1 teams over the past three seasons was by more than seven points.
