Ohio St. supplants LSU at No. 1 with two packed weeks left

Ohio State jumped LSU to No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings with two weeks left to go before selection Sunday.

LSU slipped to second Tuesday night and Clemson remained third while Georgia held on at four. If playoff history holds form, three of those top four teams will reach the semifinals.

Alabama remained No. 5 in the selection committee’s third rankings, with Utah moving up a spot to No. 6. The Utes are the only Pac-12 team in the top 10 after Oregon dropped eight spots to 14th.

Oklahoma is seventh followed by Minnesota, Baylor and Penn State.

In each of the first five years of the playoff, three of the top four teams in the rankings heading into rivalry weekend reached the semifinals, including the No. 1 team every time.

Now that spot belongs to Ohio State, which committee chairman Ron Mullens has continual referred to as a complete team.

“Competing consistently and really highly ranked on offense and defense. Performing at a high level on both,” Mullens said of Ohio State, which currently leads the nation in scoring and points allowed.

The Buckeyes beat Penn State last week 28-17, their third victory of the season against team currently ranked along with No. 12 Wisconsin and No. 18 Cincinnati. LSU has beaten No. 5 Alabama, No. 11 Florida and No. 15 Auburn.

Memphis is 18th, remaining the highest ranked team from the

Group of Five conferences. The highest ranked conference champion from outside the Power Five is guaranteed a spot in the New Year’s Six bowls. This year that would be the Cotton Bowl.

Memphis and No. 19 Cincinnati play this week and could meet next week in the American Athletic Conference championship game. Boise State from the Mountain West is 20th.

There are some signs that the stretch run this season could be more volatile than in past playoff years. First off, three times in the previous five years one of the teams that was ranked in the top four heading into rivalry weekend and made the playoff only played one more game.

This season, all the teams in the top four have two more games left, including an SEC championship game that will match LSU and Georgia. The Tigers also face Texas A&M this weekend and the Bulldogs face rival Georgia Tech.

Ohio State has two more ranked foes to face before selection Sunday in No. 13 Michigan in Saturday and either Wisconsin or Minnesota in the Big Ten championship.

Clemson has the smoothest path to the playoff with struggling South Carolina this week and an ACC championship game against either No. 24 Virginia Tech or Virginia.

Heading down the stretch there are nine teams with a realistic chance of making the playoff. The top four simply need to win out. In fact, undefeated LSU and Ohio State might even have some leeway to lose one of their final two.

Unbeaten Clemson might not get that kind of slack, but you could argue if Georgia can make the playoff with a loss to South Carolina and a conference championship, why can’t the Tigers?