Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Notre Dame top 4 in playoff poll

Alabama and Clemson, which have met each of the past three years in the College Football Playoff and have combined for the last three national championships, were ranked 1-2 Tuesday night in the first CFP rankings for the 2018 season.

Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide and Dabo Swinney’s Tigers are off to 8-0 starts, with Alabama having swept its schedule by the average score of 54-16. Clemson has won its last three games by 34 or more points after surviving close calls in September against Texas A&M and Syracuse.

“Back when I was a player, they had the big-time bus and then they had the ‘ROY’ bus — the ‘rest of y’all’ bus,” Swinney said Tuesday night on ESPN. “It’s kind of Alabama and the ‘rest of y’all.’ We’re just glad to be on the ROY bus right now and to still have a chance.

“We are getting into November, and we’re still a team in the hunt. You’ve got to keep running the race with purpose and focus and a great attention to the task at hand, but Alabama is on bus one, two and three.”

Alabama and Clemson are followed in the inaugural CFP rankings by LSU (7-1), Notre Dame (8-0), Michigan (7-1), Georgia (7-1), Oklahoma (7-1), Washington State (7-1), Kentucky (7-1) and Ohio State (7-1).

The rankings are sure to shuffle next week largely due to a pair of mammoth Southeastern Conference matchups this Saturday — Georgia at Kentucky in the afternoon and Alabama at LSU at night.

Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs lost to Alabama in last season’s championship game, and he was asked after Tuesday’s practice about the release of the rankings.

“I didn’t even know that was tonight,” Smart said. “I should have talked to our team about that, but I didn’t bring it up to them. Who knows what they’ll be thinking tonight?

“We all know the end is what matters. You’ll fall pretty quick if you get caught up in it.”

Florida, which lost 36-17 to Georgia last weekend in Jacksonville, is No. 11 in the CFP rankings, with the 6-2 Gators the highest two-loss team. They are one spot ahead of Central Florida, which is 7-0 this year and has won 20 straight games dating back to the start of the 2017 season.