TAMPA, Fla. – There were no major surprises with the first College Football Playoff ranking that was revealed Tuesday night. Frankly, much of the top 25 resembles that of the AP and coaches’ polls. There are a few things worth pointing out, though.
Big Ten/SEC
With Ohio State (8-0) and Indiana (9-0) checking in at Nos. 1 & 2, respectively, the Big Ten has the lead. CFP chair Mack Rhoades indicated during the unveiling on ESPN that both teams are in the top five offensively and defensively. That made a difference in placing the Buckeyes and Hoosiers ahead of No. 3 Texas A&M.
Led by the Aggies (8-0), the SEC occupies the next four spots. What’s interesting about A&M’s conference play is four of their five wins have come against teams that fired their coaches: Auburn, Florida, Arkansas and LSU. The Aggies are at Missouri on Saturday.
ACC
The conference’s highest ranked team is Virginia (8-1/5-0) at No. 11. The Big 12 has three teams – Texas Tech, BYU and Utah – ranked higher. Losses sustained Saturday by Georgia Tech (8-1/5-1) against North Carolina State and Miami (6-2/2-2) at SMU have the Yellow Jackets and Hurricanes at Nos. 17 & 18, respectively. The conference has a lot of work to do, and it may come to down to No. 24 Pitt (7-2/5-1), which has Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Miami as its final three regular season games. Hence, Pat Narduzzi’s team will impact the playoff picture one way or the other.
Iowa
It is surprising the Hawkeyes (6-2/4-1 Big Ten) check in at No. 20 considering their most impressive win is against Minnesota. A one-point win (escape?) over visiting Penn State in its first game without the fired James Franklin, and against a backup QB, does not move the needle. Iowa also to what is now 5-4 Iowa State, albeit early, and the only conference loss was 20-15 against visiting Indiana. We will learn more about the Hawkeyes the next two weeks as they host No. 9 Oregon and travel to No. 19 USC.
Texas
The Longhorns (7-2/4-1) have not looked that good much of this season, yet they are at No. 11. They lost to Florida and have rather ho-hum wins against Mississippi State and Kentucky. Last week’s win over Vandy was nice, though they did their best to make that interesting. A trip to Georgia next Saturday will tell us more.
Group of Five
Not surprisingly, no G5 team was ranked in the top 25. Memphis, though, gets the nod as the team the playoff committee determined to be the best among the non-power teams. The Tigers would be slotted in a No. 12.
READ: Tampa Bay Scores Big: Selected To Host 2029 College Football Playoff National Championship
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