- Oregon and Mississippi swapped spots, with the Ducks moving up to No. 6 and the Rebels dropping to No. 7.
- The upcoming rivalry weekend is expected to cause a major shakeup in the rankings.
- Tulane remains the highest-ranked Group of Five team, putting them in a strong position for an automatic playoff berth.
Take a picture, because this won’t last long.
There was only one change of note in the fifth College Football Playoff rankings after a status-quo weekend that saw the top contenders for the national championship breeze into rivalry weekend.
Overall, there were no changes in this week’s top five. The first move saw No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Mississippi swap spots after the Ducks’ win against No. 17 Southern California.
Look for this coming weekend to deliver a major shakeup given matchups such as No. 1 Ohio State against No. 15 Michigan, No. 3 Texas A&M against No. 16 Texas and Oregon against Washington, among others.
There’s even the increasing possibility of total chaos should the Rebels, No. 8 Oklahoma or No. 10 Alabama lose.
The top four teams, Tulane and James Madison lead the winners and losers from Tuesday night’s rankings:
Winners
The top four
With one or two games left to play, four teams have risen to the top of the rankings as rock-solid playoff selections regardless of what madness comes to rivalry weekend. No. 1 Ohio State could go wire-to-wire atop the rankings but is assured an at-large berth even with a loss to Michigan. In fact, the Buckeyes are in position to earn a top-four seed and a bye even without playing for the Big Ten crown. No. 2 Indiana is similarly locked into the playoff, as are No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 4 Georgia. At this point, there’s a plausible scenario that the top four remains unchanged the rest of the way. That would entail an A&M win against Texas and then a competitive loss to Georgia, and both the Buckeyes and Hoosiers reaching the Big Ten championship unbeaten and playing a close, single-possession game.
Tulane
No. 24 Tulane remained the only ranked Group of Five team for the second week in a row to reaffirm the American’s edge over James Madison the Sun Belt in the race for an automatic playoff berth. While one-loss North Texas didn’t make the cut, look for the Mean Green to appear in the penultimate rankings with a win this weekend against Temple. The American would be assured of a playoff berth should the championship game feature two ranked teams; there is zero chance in that case of the Dukes leapfrogging after beating a lesser opponent in the Sun Belt championship game.
Miami
After winning a shootout against Kansas State, No. 13 Utah dropped one spot and is likely boxed out of the Big 12 championship race because of losses to No. 5 Texas Tech and No. 11 Brigham Young. Miami rose one spot to No. 12 and will remain ahead of the Utes in the penultimate rankings by putting together a solid win against No. 22 Pittsburgh, which returned to the rankings after beating No. 23 Georgia Tech. The Hurricanes have become the one at-large team most ready to pounce in case of one loss or a combination of losses by Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Alabama.
Losers
Mississippi
As if there wasn’t enough to worry about. While waiting for Lane Kiffin to make a decision about his future, the drop to No. 7 lends some credence to the theory that the Rebels could be left outside the bracket with an Egg Bowl loss to Mississippi State. One question to keep in mind is how the committee will treat this team without Kiffin, and if they’d decide to dock the Rebels in the same way Florida State was left out of the top four two years ago after losing starting quarterback Jordan Travis. Hunter Yurachek, the committee chairman, said there would a bit of difference in the two situations because there would not be the opportunity to observe how Mississippi played without Kiffin.
Vanderbilt
No. 14 Vanderbilt continues to be dismissed by the selection committee despite being a victory away from double-digit wins for the first time in program history. But the lack of enthusiasm for the Commodores is a result of multiple vanquished SEC opponents cratering in the second half of the regular season. Vanderbilt beat LSU when the Tigers were No. 10 in the US LBM Coaches Poll; they’ve won just once since. The Commodores were the first of three losses in four games for Missouri, which was dropped from this week’s rankings. South Carolina was No. 10 in the Coaches Poll when meeting the Commodores but could finish last in the SEC.
James Madison
The Dukes remained outside the rankings after narrowly pulling out a 24-20 win against Washington State. That escape will be placed in comparison to the Cougars’ 59-10 loss to North Texas earlier this season. While being ranked and factoring into the playoff this late in the year is a notable achievement for one of the fastest-rising programs in the Bowl Subdivision, there is really no chance at this point for James Madison to earn the Group of Five bid given that the American champion should have no more than two losses. The Dukes’ only hope is that Tulane, North Texas and Navy lose this weekend to send East Carolina or South Florida to the championship game.