By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer
Georgia (8-1) moved into the top spot in Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings, while Notre Dame (8-1) moved up six slots to No. 5 to leapfrog two spots ahead of Miami (8-1) on the strength of its victory over the Hurricanes last weekend.
The second of the CFP’s six ranking reveals had its usual share of head-scratchers, starting with Indiana dropping five spots to No. 9 despite not playing last weekend.
That, along with undefeated UCLA’s move up four spots to No. 4 looked like another “correction” by a selection committee that, by most accounts, had a rough opening week.
“I don’t think it was an admission of them being too low,” said Hunter Yurachek, the chair of the 13-person selection committee, which delivered on last week’s promise of lots of movement after last weekend’s slate of big games.
There are three more Tuesday night rankings shows before the bracket is set on Dec. 6 – the day after the last round of conference title games that will go by the wayside when the playoff expands to 24 teams next season.
This year’s bracket involves 12 teams. The rest of the top 12 included No. 2 Utah, No. 3 Alabama, No. 6 Texas, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 10 BYU, No. 11 Kentucky and No. 12 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders would be the first team out, with No. 24 Boise State getting the last spot as the best team among the Group of Six.
Georgia, Utah, Alabama and UCLA would receive first-round byes as the top four teams if the initial rankings were used for the 12-team bracket.
The first-round games would be Boise State at Notre Dame, Kentucky at Texas, BYU at Miami and Indiana at Tennessee.
Wake Forest (8-1), the No. 2 team in the ACC, remains outside the top 12, though the Demon Deacons moved up three spots to No. 13. Houston is ranked No. 14, followed by Iowa, Oregon (up seven spots), South Carolina, USC, Mississippi and No. 20 Ohio State (6-3). The Buckeyes saw their CFP chances take a massive hit after losing to Oregon, 41-28, last weekend, dropping eight spots from No. 12.
LSU, Missouri, Arizona, Boise State and Oklahoma State round out the Top 25.
A BUSY WEEK AMONG TOP 10 WAS REASON FOR FLUX
Miami’s six-spot drop was severe for a team that lost by a touchdown on the road and was without arguably its best player, wide receiver Malachi Toney.
“You have that combination of Miami losing as a No. 1 team and then five teams behind them having some signature wins,” Yurachek said. “The committee thought moving those teams ahead of Miami was the right thing to do.”
Yurachek explained that Indiana was “probably a victim of having a bye week at the wrong time.” That the biggest weekend of the season thus far also involved losses by three teams the Hoosiers had previously beaten did nothing for their strength of schedule.
And UCLA’s two-touchdown pull-away victory over a Minnesota team that took the Hoosiers to overtime the week before, made the Bruins “look like the number-four team in the country,” Yurachek said.
UCLA (9-0 overall, 6-0 Big Ten) and Utah (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) are the lone remaining undefeated teams in BCS.
SEC GETS 5 TEAMS IN PROJECTED BRACKET
As usual, the SEC, now featuring five teams with two losses, got the most love. It would have five teams in this week’s projected playoff bracket.
Hardly anyone would argue over Alabama (7-2) moving up two spots to No. 3 after the Tide’s 31-13 win over LSU. Kentucky (7-2) got blasted, 34-6, by Tennessee (7-2) and dropped to No. 11, staying in the bracket based a lot on a fourth-ranked strength of schedule.
The Big Ten and Big 12 had two teams each – BYU (7-2) only dropped one spot after its loss to Utah – and Miami was the ACC’s only team in the bracket, with Wake Forest (8-1) ranked 13th and needing a rematch with the ’Canes in the ACC title game.
TEAMS OUTSIDE TOP 12 CAN STATE THEIR CASE
The teams ranked 15-18 – Iowa (7-2), Oregon (6-3), South Carolina (6-3) and USC (7-2) – are all contenders with big games left on their schedules that would easily move them into the hunt.
South Carolina, for instance, plays Georgia in two weeks. Iowa and Oregon could still find their way into the Big Ten title game and play for their league’s automatic berth. And for USC, the push starts Saturday at Indiana and closes Nov. 28 with its traditional meeting with UCLA.
POSTSEASON SCHEDULE
The four first-round games will be played at the home campus of the higher-seeded teams on Dec. 18 and 19. The four quarterfinal games will be staged at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, the Rose Bowl and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1.
The two semifinal games will take place at the Orange Bowl in Miami and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 14 and 15.
The CFP national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 25 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
More to come on this story.