Boise State received its fourth and final bye in the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night, leaving BYU out of that mix and putting the Big 12 next to the SEC with a problem on the list of power conferences.
Undefeated Oregon again received the highest ranking, awarded by the committee, just hours after Big Ten number crunchers ran through the tiebreakers and realized the Ducks had clinched a spot in the conference title game no matter what happened between now and December.
Ohio State remained at No. 2, one spot ahead of Southeastern Conference co-leader Texas. Miami of the Atlantic Coast Conference was ranked eighth, but gets the third seed and a bye to the top four ranked conference leaders. And similarly, Boise State was ranked 12th by the committee but was placed fourth and last.
BYU was ranked 14th, but gets the final spot in the 12-team bracket as the fifth-best conference leader. That comes at the expense of No. 11 Tennessee, which lost to Georgia last week and now takes the spot the SEC’s Bulldogs took last week: first team out.
There are three weeks of rankings to go, culminating in the Dec. 8 unveiling that will determine eligibility for college football’s first 12-team playoff.
Boise State’s rise in the bye wasn’t all that unexpected after BYU suffered its first loss of the season and fell eight spots in the rankings. Still, it’s a bit of a setback for Big 12 fans, who point out that every team in their league has a stronger schedule than the Mountain West’s Broncos.
Of course, no one is shouting louder than the SEC, which was generally shocked to see Georgia get shut out after last week’s lopsided loss to Mississippi. Now the Bulldogs are back at No. 10. Alabama is No. 7 and Ole Miss is No. 9. All three teams, along with Tennessee, have two losses. but no one can dispute the strength of that conference’s schedule.
Other rankings: No. 4 Penn State, No. 5 Indiana and No. 6 Notre Dame.
