The top three teams in the College Football Playoff rankings — Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M — remained unchanged while Georgia slid into No. 4 and the last first-round bye in the committee’s latest rankings revealed Tuesday night.
Georgia capitalized on the biggest result of the weekend, rival Alabama’s 23-21 loss to Oklahoma, which resulted in the Crimson Tide dropping six spots to No. 10. Georgia’s lone loss of the season came to Alabama by three points, but it soundly defeated then-No. 10 Texas 35-10 on Saturday.
Oklahoma rose just three places to No. 8 with its win at Tuscaloosa and leads a large glut of mostly 8-2 teams between the eighth and 15th spots.
Following Georgia in the rankings were three one-loss teams: Texas Tech, Ole Miss and Oregon. Oklahoma moved past Notre Dame (8-2), which remained at No. 9.
After Alabama came BYU, Utah, Miami, Vanderbilt and Southern California. Of that group, only BYU is 9-1.
The new Group of Five representative in the mock bracket is Tulane (8-2). Last week’s lone G5 team in the rankings, South Florida, fell 41-38 at Navy for its third loss of the season, and Tulane entered the Top 25 for the first time this year at No. 24.
Meanwhile, Miami is the highest-ranked Atlantic Coast Conference team this week at No. 13 and therefore appeared in the mock bracket, but it will be highly unlikely for the Hurricanes to reach the conference championship game. No. 16 Georgia Tech, No. 19 Virginia, Pitt and SMU all have one conference loss while Miami owns two league losses.
The latest College Football Playoff projections:
First-round byes: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia
First-round games:
No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Texas Tech
No. 11 Miami at No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Oregon
No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oklahoma
First team out: BYU
College Football Playoff rankings
1. Ohio State (10-0)
2. Indiana (11-0)
3. Texas A&M (10-0)
4. Georgia (9-1)
5. Texas Tech (10-1)
6. Ole Miss (10-1)
7. Oregon (9-1)
8. Oklahoma (8-2)
9. Notre Dame (8-2)
10. Alabama (8-2)
11. BYU (9-1)
12. Utah (8-2)
13. Miami (8-2)
14. Vanderbilt (8-2)
15. Southern California (8-2)
16. Georgia Tech (9-1)
17. Texas (7-3)
18. Michigan (8-2)
19. Virginia (9-2)
20. Tennessee (7-3)
21. Illinois (7-3)
22. Missouri (7-3)
23. Houston (8-2)
24. Tulane (8-2)
25. Arizona State (7-3)
