College Football Playoff rankings: Ohio State and Indiana on top (again) as SEC teams dominate the top 10

The third College Football Playoff rankings propelled the event closer to an endgame guaranteed to roil the masses Are you ready for five SEC teams The conference took a giant leap toward gobbling almost half the bids to the -team event when the rankings were unveiled Tuesday evening Oklahoma vaulted three spots to No following its conquest at Alabama But critically the th-ranked Crimson Tide did not drop below the cut line for CFP inclusion despite sustaining their second loss Add No Texas A M No Georgia and No Mississippi to the Sooners and Crimson Tide and the SEC would have five participants if the field were selected the present day one automatic qualifier the conference champion plus four at-large teams Last year in the first year of the -team event the Big Ten led all conferences with four bids one automatic and three at-large With two Saturdays remaining in the regular season plus championship weekend there is time for tumult But at this point the SEC has a firm grasp on the pole position at the expense of everyone else The Big is staring at another disappointing outcome if No Texas Tech wins the conference championship Both No BYU and No Utah are precariously positioned given the lack of schedule juice remaining e g no ranked opponents and the promising for teams just below them to move up The likelihood of the Big collecting a single bid as it did last year Arizona State is increasing by the week The ACC faces a comparable fate with No Miami as the conference s highest-ranked organization Notably the Hurricanes are four spots below Notre Dame even though they have the same record - and Miami won the head-to-head matchup But committee chair Hunter Yurachek the Arkansas athletic director who took over as chair last week when Baylor AD Mack Rhoades stepped down reported the teams were not close enough for the head-to-head consequence to be considered The difference in resumes he reported is rooted in the quality of their losses The Irish lost to No Miami and No Texas A M while the Hurricanes lost to two unranked teams SMU and Louisville And what of the Big Ten The third installment of the CFP rankings wasn t much more encouraging for the conference than either of the first two Yes No Ohio State and No Indiana held their ground and are effectively locks for the CFP But Oregon is No a tad too close to the current cut line between No and for comfort If the Ducks - lose at home to USC this weekend or at Washington in the season finale they could fall out of the field Related Articles Big Ten private capital deal on pause giving Petitti time to regroup and eradicate those troubling Pac- vibes Pac- bowl projections How the CFP impasse could impact Pac- legacy bowls for next season Big Ten power rankings USC Oregon prepare for CFP elimination competition Big power rankings Top four stay solid as Arizona soars and a fascinating Territorial Cup comes into focus Pac- power rankings San Diego State s CFP path widens via American chaos ESPN analyst Greg McElroy noted the precedent set by the committee s healing of Alabama which fell six spots after losing at home to Oklahoma If you re Oregon you better win out McEloy commented because a six-slot slide will have you out of the field They just did it to Alabama They can do it to you The Trojans - are at this moment on the outside looking in Yes they moved up two spots to No after beating Iowa but they are behind six teams with two losses A conquest in Eugene would polish their resume but would it be enough to climb five positions and gain a foothold in the field Put another way It s not formidable to envision the Big Ten as a two-bid conference when the field is publicized on Dec Add the ACC and Big champions plus No Notre Dame and the highest-ranked group from the Group of Five as of now Tulane and that s six teams If the SEC gets five there would be one bid remaining for a third crew from the Big Ten a second from either the ACC or Big or yes we ll say it a sixth from the SEC There are too plenty of viable permutations to evaluate at this point But the majority likely outcome by far has the SEC owning the day when the field is disclosed Send suggestions comments and tips confidentiality guaranteed to wilnerhotline bayareanewsgroup com or call - - Follow me on the social media platform X WilnerHotline