Playoff ’s top four remain unchanged

The College Football Playoff rankings held steady at the top, with Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Michigan an unchanged first four from last week.

The third rankings of the season were drama-free Tuesday night after every top-10 team won last weekend. In fact, the entire top 10 stayed the same, the first time that has happened in the five seasons since the CFP was born.

With three weekends left until the final selections are made Dec. 2, Georgia was fifth and Oklahoma was sixth. LSU, Washington State, West Virginia and Ohio State rounded out the top 10.

The Cotton and Orange bowls will serve as the semifinals with the national championship game Jan. 7 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Players dismissed: No. 6 Oklahoma dismissed offensive lineman Tramonda Moore for violating team rules. The Oklahoma City native had been the No. 2 junior college offensive-line prospect in the nation according to Rivals before coming to Oklahoma for his junior year, but he did not play for the Sooners.

USC dismissed linebacker Levi Jones, also for an undisclosed violation of team rules. The son of Dallas Cowboys’ three-time Super Bowl-winning linebacker Robert Jones previously had been suspended for Saturday’s loss to Cal. He had 13 tackles in eight games in his sophomore season. Sac State game canceled: Northern Arizona University’s game against Sacramento State that was postponed last weekend because of poor air quality from the Camp Fire has been canceled. Northern Arizona said Tuesday the schools explored options to reschedule but couldn’t find a compatible date. Another bowl game: A bowl is coming to South Carolina’s Grand Strand resort area in 2020. The Myrtle Beach Bowl will be shared by Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. The y will play in the game four times each between from 2020 and ’25 at Sun Belt school Coastal Carolina. The bowl would bring the number of FBS bowl games to 40 if all current bowls are still going in 2020.