Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Notre Dame top 1st CFP rankings

Published 8:16 am Wednesday, October 31, 2018

If you don’t like the first College Football Playoff selection committee rankings, don’t worry. Saturday’s slate of huge games guarantees major changes are coming next week.

Alabama, Clemson, LSU and Notre Dame were the top four teams in the initial CFP rankings Tuesday night.

After meeting for a day and a half at a hotel outside Dallas, the 13-member selection committee released the first of its five weekly top 25s before the four-team field is set for the semifinals on Dec. 2.

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Michigan was fifth, followed by Georgia and Oklahoma. Washington State was eighth, the highest-ranked Pac-12 team. Kentucky was ninth.

Of course, the final rankings are the only ones that matter, but the playoff picture will be reshaped this weekend. Four games matching top-20 teams are on tap Saturday, including Alabama at LSU and Georgia at Kentucky.

West Virginia, 13th in the CFP, is at Texas, which is 17th. Michigan hosts Penn State, which came in at 14.

The first top four teams were no surprise. The same teams are Nos. 1-4 in the latest Associated Press poll, except with Notre Dame third and LSU fourth.

Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens, who is in his first season as committee chairman, said LSU’s FBS-leading six victories against teams with winning records gave the Tigers the edge over undefeated Notre Dame. The Irish play at Northwestern (5-3) on Saturday.

UCF was the highest ranked team from outside the Power Five conferences at 12th. The highest ranked team from the so-called Group of Five conferences at the end of the regular season is guaranteed a spot in the New Year’s Six bowls. The Knights, riding a 20-game winning streak, earned that spot last year, beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl and proclaimed themselves national champions.

UCF has yet to beat a team that currently has a winning record. The strength of schedule held the Knights back, Mullens said. “But you balance that against what you see when you watch the games,” he added.

Last season, UCF started 18th and rose to 12th by the final rankings.

History Lesson

If form holds, two of the top four teams in the first CFP ranking of the season will go on to play in the national semifinals.

Coaches began downplaying the significance of the rankings even before they were revealed on national television.