Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State stay at top of College Football Playoff rankings

December 1, 2020

Ohio State held on to No. 4 despite the cancellation of its game at Illinois on Saturday after positive tests within its program for the coronavirus that has broadsided the autumn schedule. The Buckeyes held off No. 5 Texas A&M (6-1), No. 6 Florida (7-1) and No. 7 Cincinnati (8-0) after a weekend on which the Aggies beat LSU, 20-7, at home; the Gators beat Kentucky, 34-10, at home; and the Bearcats saw their match with Temple canceled as well.

The idea of flipping Texas A&M and Ohio State did come up and stir some chitchat in the committee room, as chairman Gary Barta, the athletic director at Iowa, said on ESPN. He also acknowledged the harder calculus of ranking teams with such wide discrepancies in games played — a quirk that, in Ohio State’s case, stems from the Big Ten’s public health caution in starting its season six weeks after the starts of teams such as Notre Dame and Clemson.

The committee also didn’t transpose Alabama and Notre Dame at the top, even as it took Notre Dame’s most recent victim, North Carolina (6-3), and accorded it the respect of an upgrade from No. 19 to No. 17.

Yet the top 10, rigid as it was, did manage to welcome a new member: Iowa State, led by surging 41-year-old coach Matt Campbell. The Cyclones (7-2) bounced from No. 13 to No. 9 because they had just bounced then-No. 17 Texas out of the rankings entirely with a 20-16 win Friday in Austin. Northwestern (5-1) yielded its spot at No. 8 after its naughty 29-20 loss Saturday at Michigan State, falling to No. 14.

And for all the form, this second set of rankings this season did produce a meaningful distinction. When the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana Lafayette (8-1) debuted on the list at No. 25, they joined No. 7 Cincinnati, No. 13 BYU (9-0), No. 18 Coastal Carolina (9-0), No. 21 Marshall (7-0) and No. 24 Tulsa (5-1) to make it six ranked teams outside the Power Five conferences. That represented the most in the seven-season history of a playoff concept often viewed as snooty toward the sport’s financial underlings.

Earlier, Tuesday had brought relevant news from Ohio State and from the ACC.

The Buckeyes announced they would resume football practice after suspending it late last week, aiming to shore up their game total come Saturday by playing at Michigan State without Coach Ryan Day, homebound in isolation after his positive test. The Buckeyes must play that game and the one Dec. 12 against Michigan to meet the six-game minimum for Big Ten championship game qualification. That’s even as the College Football Playoff does not require such a minimum and retains the freedom to choose Ohio State.

Then the ACC announced a late rearrangement of its addled schedule. It said it would judge its teams on nine games rather than 10 for its championship game of Dec. 19, gave both Notre Dame and Clemson the week off Dec. 12 and wound up securing a berth in that game for Notre Dame, its gilded one-season football interloper. The other spot probably will go to Clemson but maybe to No. 10 Miami (7-1), which otherwise would play at Duke on Dec. 5, at home against North Carolina on Dec. 12 and at home against Georgia Tech on Dec. 19, a rescheduled game on the same day as the championship game.

To the loudest question from last week, the answer was fairly quiet. BYU inched from No. 14, a ranking seen by some as a slight, to No. 13, a ranking that will be seen by some as a slight. Barta cited the relative toothlessness of BYU’s schedule, a schedule Athletic Director Tom Holmoe patched together after the harsh dominoes of the late summer found the independent Cougars down to three scheduled games.

As quarterback Zach Wilson has begun turning up in sentences around the proper noun “Heisman,” the Cougars’ rout-filled slate has gone through Navy (55-3), Troy (48-7), Louisiana Tech (45-14), Texas San Antonio (27-20), Houston (43-26), Texas State (52-14), Western Kentucky (41-10), Boise State (51-17) and North Alabama (66-14). They have San Diego State left on Dec. 12. For now, top-10-wise, they lurk behind No. 11 Oklahoma (6-2) and No. 12 Indiana (5-1).

Further west, the Pac-12, which started even later than the Big Ten, lost a rankings traction that already counted as mild. From having No. 15 Oregon (3-0) and No. 18 Southern California (3-0), it shifted to No. 20 USC (still 3-0), No. 22 Washington (3-0) and No. 23 Oregon (now 3-1).

Here are the rankings announced Tuesday night:

1. Alabama (8-0)

2. Notre Dame (9-0)

3. Clemson (8-1)

4. Ohio State (4-0)

5. Texas A&M (6-1)

6. Florida (7-1)

7. Cincinnati (8-0)

8. Georgia (6-2)

9. Iowa State (7-2)

10. Miami (7-1)

11. Oklahoma (6-2)