The top five teams remained unchanged in the second rankings released by the College Football Playoff selection committee Tuesday.
Ohio State remained No. 1 and was followed by Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama and Georgia in the top five.
Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Oregon, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma and BYU round out the 12 teams in the rankings.
Since five conference champions are guaranteed to make the 12-team bracket, No. 24 South Florida (highest-ranked Group of Five champion) would replace BYU as the 12th seed and Miami (projected ACC champion) would replace Oklahoma.
The Buckeyes, Hoosiers, Aggies and Crimson Tide would receive first-round byes as the top four teams if the second rankings were used for the 12-team bracket.
The first-round games would be this: South Florida at Georgia, Miami at Texas Tech, Texas at Ole Miss and Notre Dame at Oregon.
The SEC had six teams in the top 12, followed by the Big Ten with three and the Big 12 with two. The ACC had five teams in the top 25 but none higher than 15th.
South Florida was the only team from a Group of Five conference in the top 25.
The selection committee didn’t ding the unbeaten Hoosiers after they needed Fernando Mendoza’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone with 36 seconds left to come from behind in a 27-24 victory at struggling Penn State last week.
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The Nittany Lions have lost six games in a row and fired their coach, James Franklin, on Oct. 12.
“It was one of our longer discussions in our meetings,” CFP committee chair Mack Rhoades, the athletic director at Baylor, said on ESPN’s rankings release show Tuesday night regarding the choice between Hoosiers and Aggies at No. 2. ” Indiana, we gave them the edge defensively, and certainly, offensively, as well. You think about Indiana’s body of work …. Indiana found a way to find a way.”
Unbeaten Texas A&M remained behind the Hoosiers after defeating another ranked team on the road last week, winning 38-17 at Missouri. The Aggies also won 41-40 at Notre Dame earlier this season.
Texas Tech moved up two spots and leaped Ole Miss in the rankings. The Red Raiders had another dominant defensive performance in last week’s 29-7 victory against BYU.
The Cougars fell five spots after suffering their first defeat of the season.
“What a convincing win against BYU, both sides of the ball,” Rhoades said of Texas Tech, when asked what is keeping the Red Raiders out of the top four. “Offensively, in the red zone, they’ve left some points off the board, and have kicked a lot of field goals. But they’re a really good football team.”
Utah was 13th in the committee’s rankings, followed by Vanderbilt, Miami, Georgia Tech, USC, Michigan, Virginia and Louisville. The Cavaliers and Cardinals also dropped five spots after losing last week.
The Hurricanes were the highest-ranked team from the ACC, even though they have two losses in conference play. Five teams — Georgia Tech, Virginia, Pittsburgh, SMU and Duke — have only one loss in ACC play, so Miami will need help in reaching the ACC championship game.
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“With Miami, we had some teams lose, and again, the conversation with Miami has been about their consistency, especially on offense,” Rhoades said. “They’ve been really, really good on defense. Obviously, the head-to-head (win) with Notre Dame comes up. … All of those things play into it. We’ve got great respect for Miami.”
Iowa, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, South Florida and Cincinnati rounded out the top 25.
South Florida and Cincinnati are ranked for the first time, while Missouri and Washington fell out after losing last week.
The four first-round games will be played at the home campus of the higher-seeded teams on Dec. 19 and 20. The four quarterfinal games will be staged at the Cotton Bowl Classic, Capital One Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential and the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.
The two semifinal games will take place at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Jan. 8 and 9.
The CFP National Championship presented by AT&T is scheduled for Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
