The committee released its second College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night, and the top ten barely resembles the one from a week ago. Georgia is No. 1. Alabama jumped two spots to No. 3 behind a dismantling of LSU. And the SEC Network crew spent Wednesday morning picking through exactly why, with Roman Harper, Matt Stinchcomb and Dari Nowkhah breaking down how Alabama is sitting pretty while Tennessee is still trying to climb back into the picture.
That's the shape of this week in college football. One loss can still sting. A good loss, against the wrong opponent, can wreck a season. And for three teams in particular, the ground shifted hard in 48 hours.
Where Does Alabama Sit in the New CFP Rankings?
Alabama is No. 3, up two spots, after beating LSU behind quarterback Keelon Russell, whose tape the SEC Network crew spent real time on Wednesday, breaking down the offensive gameplan that let him pick apart the Tigers' defense for big plays and touchdowns. The Crimson Tide sit at 7-2 on the season. Two losses is normally a number that keeps you out of the conversation. In this version of the SEC, it's a number that still gets you a top-three seed, because of who's left on the schedule and who you've already beaten.
That's not new for Alabama. Checked the almanac: this isn't the first time a two-loss, SEC-résumé team has caught a break from this committee. The committee has shown for most of a decade that it weighs quality losses and a brutal schedule over a clean record from a softer league. Alabama is the program that has benefited from that math more than once.
What Changed at the Top: Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame
Georgia moved into the No. 1 spot fresh off a win at Ole Miss, bumping up one spot to take over after Miami lost at Notre Dame, its first defeat of the season. That one result reordered the entire top ten. Miami's loss, 31-24 on the road, knocked the Hurricanes out of the top spot entirely, and Notre Dame's win sent the Irish rocketing from No. 11 to No. 5, a six-spot jump that's as strong a signal as the committee sends this time of year. Utah, still undefeated, sits at No. 2. UCLA, also unbeaten, jumped four spots to No. 4.
The Big Ten's Playoff Math After Ohio State's Collapse
The Big Ten pushed hardest for a bigger bracket, and now it needs every spot that bracket can offer. Ohio State's loss at home to Oregon dropped the Buckeyes out of serious contention, and the reporting out of the conference notes Ohio State is 6-5 in its last 11 games dating back to last season. That leaves the Big Ten clinging to two realistic playoff teams: Indiana, which fell five spots to No. 9 in this week's rankings, and UCLA, unbeaten and rising.
| Rank | Team | Record | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | 8-1 | up 1 |
| 2 | Utah | undefeated | steady |
| 3 | Alabama | 7-2 | up 2 |
| 4 | UCLA | undefeated | up 4 |
| 5 | Notre Dame | 8-1 | up 6 |
| 9 | Indiana | , | down 5 |
The SEC's Strength-of-Schedule Argument
There's a version of this week's story that's about one conference's talking points getting louder. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says he hasn't been working the refs, but the buzz out of SEC coaches and administrators about strength of schedule, about how deceptive a win-loss record can be, about how grueling nine conference games actually are, has been constant all fall. The weekly Anger Index piece on the ACC's case makes the same argument from the other side: strength of schedule is the lens the committee is using, and it's not treating every conference's games the same way. The SEC Now crew spent part of Wednesday picking which two-loss SEC teams they think win out from here, which tells you the conference believes more two-loss résumés are coming, and wants the committee primed for it before they arrive.
What's Next for Alabama and the Field
None of the top five teams in this week's rankings appear on the slate for the next few days, so the real test for this group comes later in November, when the schedule tightens and two-loss teams stop getting the benefit of the doubt. The one ranked team with an imminent spot on the board is UCLA, which hosts Illinois on Friday night, a game that will say something about whether the Bruins' four-spot jump holds up against a ranked Big Ten opponent. Beyond that, the committee's next reveal is the one to watch, because if Alabama keeps producing performances like the one Keelon Russell just put on tape, the climb doesn't stop at three.
