Seekers of chaos had a hopeless night Tuesday with regard to the latest College Football Playoff rankings. The 13-member selection committee sustained its professionalism and refused any temptation for mischief when it flew to Dallas-Fort Worth, spent hours meeting and ruminating, then dispensed a top 10 identical to that of last week.
That surpassed the flat-lining week of Nov. 25, 2014, when the committee kept the top seven teams constant from Nov. 18, the previous frivolous record.
This time, as with that time, Alabama remained No. 1, a position it has held for 15 of the 28 weeks since the concept of a four-team playoff and the weekly rankings leading to it began with the 2014-15 season. In its heyday of heydays this decade, the Crimson Tide (10-0) has appeared in the top four in 24 of the 28 listings across five seasons, and in 24 of the past 25.
Familiarity insisted at No. 2 as well, when Clemson (10-0) stayed there as it has for all three rankings weeks this season. The Tigers’ 27-7 win at then-No. 17 Boston College on Saturday couldn’t quite boost them past Alabama, and its 24-0 home win against then-No. 16 Mississippi State. Clemson has appeared in the top four in 21 of the 28 listings and in all of the past 21.
From there, as with last week, came two teams that played each other on Sept. 1: No. 3 Notre Dame (10-0) and No. 4 Michigan (9-1). The Fighting Irish will have a chance to put some cement on that ranking Saturday when they head to the Bronx to play Syracuse (8-2), which climbed a notch to No. 12.
Michigan remained ahead of No. 5 Georgia (9-1) in a case of two teams with identical records and similar CVs. “Michigan has a very strong résumé,” committee chairman Rob Mullens, the athletic director at Oregon, said in a conference call. “They’ve won nine games in a row. Their only loss was to the No. 3-ranked team” way back in the first weekend. He cited the Wolverines’ No. 1 defense alongside its wins at No. 22 Northwestern, at previously ranked Michigan State and at home against No. 14 Penn State.
He also cited Georgia’s surge since it got ransacked on Oct. 13 at LSU, a recovery featuring wins over No. 13 Florida, the highest three-loss team on the list, No. 17 Kentucky and previously ranked Auburn.
None of the top 10 teams lost last week, a rare turn of calm in a sport often beloved for its turbulence. The highest-ranked team to lose was No. 11 Kentucky, which fell to No. 17 and to 7-3 because it lost at its eternal nemesis, Tennessee. Beyond that, the only teams to lose to anyone beneath them were No. 14 North Carolina State, No. 21 Iowa and No. 23 Fresno State.
The committee omitted those from its list but proved more forgiving to No. 16 Mississippi State and No. 17 Boston College, dropping them to Nos. 21 and 20, respectively. The previous teams at Nos. 18 and 24, Michigan State and Auburn, also lost to higher-ranked teams but vanished.
Kentucky’s loss caused another rankings milestone by enabling Central Florida (9-0) to slide upward to No. 11. That became the highest ranking to date for any team from the second tier of the top rung of the sport, known as the Group of Five. It bested the No. 12 with which an unbeaten UCF finished last season, and the No. 12 it had held down the first two weeks of this season, much to its ambitious chagrin.
“Similar to past weeks,” Mullens said of the UCF considerations. “Obviously we saw their game against Navy and the win. Obviously their offense continues to perform, (quarterback) McKenzie Milton’s a special talent, but the strength of schedule continues to be part of the discussion, and that’s why they’re No. 11.”
After ranking only two Group of Five teams in its first two lists, the committee did bring four into the light this week: UCF, No. 23 Utah State (9-1), No. 24 Cincinnati (9-1) and No. 25 Boise State (8-2). The top-ranked Group of Five team at the end of the season receives a bid into a major New Year’s Six bowl.
Sitting outside the top four were No. 5 Georgia (9-1), No. 6 Oklahoma (9-1), No. 7 LSU (8-2), No. 8 Washington State (9-1), No. 9 West Virginia (8-1) and No. 10 Ohio State (9-1). Four of those six – Georgia, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Ohio State – figure to have remaining chances for emphatic statements. Georgia already has clinched passage to play Alabama in the SEC title game of Dec. 1. Oklahoma and West Virginia have a date with each other in Morgantown, W.Va., on the night after Thanksgiving, which they will reach after Oklahoma plays at home against Kansas and West Virginia visits Oklahoma State. Ohio State, after its visit to Maryland this weekend, will return home to see Michigan.
Washington State, meanwhile, holds down the highest position of any Pac-12 team, even if the cross-state rival it so adores, Washington (7-3), did just pull off a rankings curiosity. As evidence of the difficulty some voters are having filling out 25-strong rankings this year, the Huskies moved from No. 25 to No. 18 while idle this past weekend. Washington State and Washington will play each other at Washington State on Nov. 23.