First CFP Rankings Provide a New Team at the Top, Snub Washington

The first College Football Playoff selection committee rankings were released Tuesday with minimal surprises. The committee leaned on win-loss records over strength of schedule, with all the Power Five unbeatens in a pack at the top followed by all the P5 one-loss teams, then those with two losses.

Ohio State is No. 1, followed by two-time reigning champion Georgia, Michigan and Florida State. Washington, the other Power Five unbeaten, is the fifth wheel at No. 5.

The Buckeyes were rewarded for quality wins over Penn State (No. 11 in the committee’s top 25) and Notre Dame (No. 15). Interestingly, both of those teams are ranked higher by the AP and Coaches voters, with the Nittany Lions No. 9 and the Fighting Irish No. 12. No other team has two wins over the committee’s top 15.

The Bulldogs are on a 25-game winning streak but haven’t played much of a schedule to date, with zero wins over teams in the committee’s top 25. That will change dramatically in November, with No. 12 Missouri, No. 10 Mississippi and No. 17 Tennessee in the next three weeks. If Georgia wins those games it could move into the No. 1 spot—though it could be temporary. Ohio State and Michigan clash in Ann Arbor on Nov. 25, and if both are undefeated then the winner stands to be No. 1 heading into conference championship games.

Michigan’s season has been dogged by controversy. Coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended the first three games by the school as part of an ongoing NCAA investigation into impermissible recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period, including allegations that Harbaugh lied to investigators in the course of the inquiry. Then news erupted Oct. 18 that the NCAA was launching a different investigation into potential impermissible in-person scouting of future opponents by the Wolverines. That probe is ongoing and has led to the suspension of staffer Connor Stalions, who sources say is at the center of a scheme to send Stalions’s associates to games to record opponents’ play signals.

However, as expected, the committee did not take off-field controversy into account when ranking the teams. “It’s an NCAA issue,” said CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan. “It’s not a CFP issue.”

For now, Michigan can expect to be ranked solely on its on-field performance, but that’s subject to change depending what else is learned in the Stalions investigation. That took another twist Tuesday with the announcement from Central Michigan that it is investigating whether Stalions was on the Chippewas’ sideline in CMU coaching garb during their season-opening game against future Michigan opponent Michigan State.

Of the five unbeatens, Washington has the win over the highest-ranked team, having defeated No. 6 Oregon by three points earlier in October. However, since then the Huskies have struggled against weak competition, barely getting by Arizona State and Stanford (a combined 4–12). That likely contributed to Washington being fifth.

The Ducks, meanwhile, are the top one-loss team. Oregon and Washington lead six Pac-12 teams into the CFP’s top 20, with Oregon State, Utah, UCLA and USC all between Nos. 16 and 20. The Pac-12 is well positioned to end a six-year streak of missing out on the Playoff.

The rest of the one-loss teams were ordered more or less as expected, with Texas’s win at Alabama helping land the Longhorns at No. 7 despite a loss to No. 9 Oklahoma. The Crimson Tide is between those two Big 12 rivals, while Mississippi rounds out the top 10.

The committee doesn’t get to any teams with two losses until LSU at No. 14. The Tigers are followed in the two-loss P5 parade by Notre Dame, Oregon State, Tennessee, Utah, UCLA, USC, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. This was the Jayhawks’ first-ever CFP Top 25 ranking.

The top Group of Five team in the rankings is 7–1 Tulane at No. 24, followed by 8–0 Air Force at No. 25. The G5 team that holds the highest ranking on Selection Sunday in December will get a New Years Six bowl bid. Tulane earned that bid last year and upset USC in the Cotton Bowl.

The only teams in the top 10 with regular-season games left against each other are the Buckeyes and Wolverines and Ole Miss at Georgia.