College Football Playoff: Ohio State, Michigan remain in top four while UC returns to rankings

Not much change at the top was expected in the third release of the College Football Playoff rankings, and not much changed at the top.

Defending national champion Georgia is No. 1 this week followed by No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 TCU.

Those teams are all undefeated.

Tennessee (9-1) is fifth this week followed by No. 6 LSU and No. 7 USC.

LSU has two losses but returned to relevance with an upset of Alabama two weeks ago.

USC’s one loss was by a point to Utah, ranked No. 10 this week, but the Trojans appear to be the Pac-12′s only hope for a CFP berth after Oregon and UCLA were upset last week and joined the two-loss club.

Finishing out the top 10 are No. 9 Clemson and No. 8 Alabama.

The Crimson Tide are ahead of the one-loss Tigers despite having two losses.

Cincinnati is No. 25 after not being ranked in the first two weeks. The Bearcats became the first team from outside the Power 5 conferences to make the CFP last season.

Of the top four, Georgia and TCU would seem to control their destiny while Ohio State and Michigan are set to face off for the Big Ten East title in two weeks no matter what they do this week against Maryland and Illinois, respectively.

The Fighting Illini were set to give Michigan a shot at its second win over a ranked opponent, but Illinois dropped out of the rankings after being upset by Purdue on Saturday.

Ohio State and Michigan both have wins over No. 11 Penn State, and Ohio State’s win over No. 18 Notre Dame could loom large when the final rankings are set, especially if the Buckeyes lose to Michigan for a second straight season.

About the Author