Ohio State passes LSU at 1 in CFP rankings

Erick Smith

The top of the fourth College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday evening resembled the previous three with LSU and Ohio State at the top.

Except it was the Buckeyes at the No. 1 position this week after they beat Penn State.

The Tigers, who were first in the last two rankings, fell to No. 2 after beating Arkansas.

While the debate might seem insignificant with both teams on track to make the field, the question of which team gets the top seed determines each one’s semifinal opponent. Both the Tigers

and the Buckeyes would like to avoid defending champion Clemson, which again was slotted into the No. 3 position.

“They’re a complete team,” committee chairman Rob Mullens said Tuesday evening in explaining the reason for moving up the Buckeyes. “They have three wins against teams ranked in the top 19.”

The race for No. 1 should continue in the final two weeks with Ohio State visiting Michigan and then facing either Minnesota or Wisconsin for the Big Ten Conference championship, while LSU hosts Texas A&M and then meets Georgia in the Southeastern Conference title game. The Bulldogs held the No. 4 spot in this week’s rankings.

The fifth spot is significant with Georgia headed for a win-or-else game against the Tigers in Atlanta.

The committee kept Alabama at No. 5 with Utah and Oklahoma moving up to sixth and seventh, respectively. The Crimson Tide won’t be in a conference championship game, like the Utes and the Sooners, so they’ll have to make a final statement this week against Auburn.

Minnesota, Baylor and Penn State completed the top 10, with the Golden Gophers and the Bears both still in the race with the possibility of winning conference championships. The two-loss Nittany Lions are hopeful of landing a

New Year’s Six bowl berth.

No. 18 Memphis was the top Group of Five team, right ahead of No. 19 Cincinnati, giving it the inside track on a New Year’s Six bowl invitation that goes to the highest-ranked champion outside the Power Five conferences.

Boise State and Appalachian State are the other Group of Five representatives in the Top 25.

The top four teams in the final rankings release Dec. 8 will play in the semifinals. Those two games will take place at the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 28.

The championship game will be played Jan. 13 in New Orleans at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.