College Football Playoff Rankings: Oregon holds at No. 1 with Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Indiana in tow

The second edition of the College Football Playoff Rankings were released Tuesday night with undefeated Oregon remaining at No. 1 in the initial year of the expanded 12-team field. Off to a dominant start this season with wins over Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, and most recently, Maryland, the Ducks sit in the top spot seeking to make their second playoff appearance overall — first since the four-team field debuted after the 2014 season.

Seven of 10 teams ranked No. 1 in a season’s initial CFP Rankings ultimately reached the playoff in the four-team era with Mississippi State (2014), Tennessee (2022) and Ohio State (2023) being the exceptions. With eight more spots in the field this season, Oregon sits in a strong position at 10-0 as one of three remaining Power Four undefeated programs this season (BYU, Indiana).

Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Indiana round out the rest of the top five with three of the slots changing from the initial CFP Rankings.

The top Group of Five program in Tuesday’s release is Boise State at No. 13. With the 12-team playoff model granting automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions, the Broncos stand in pole position to earn that opportunity should they win their league. Army West Point is the only other Group of Five team in the initial CFP Rankings at No. 24.

Let’s take a look at the entire CFP Rankings top 25 along with the projected bracket seedings for the first 12 teams. Check out analysis by bowls expert Jerry Palm below.

College Football Playoff Rankings, Nov. 12

1. Oregon (10-0) | Projected No. 1 seed
2. Ohio State (8-1) | Projected No. 5 seed
3. Texas (8-1) | Projected No. 2 seed
4. Penn State (8-1) | Projected No. 6 seed
5. Indiana (10-0) | Projected No. 7 seed
6. BYU (9-0) | Projected No. 3 seed
7. Tennessee (8-1) | Projected No. 8 seed
8. Notre Dame (8-1) | Projected No. 9 seed
9. Miami (FL) (9-1) | Projected No. 4 seed
10. Alabama (7-2) | Projected No. 10 seed
11. Ole Miss (8-2) | Projected No. 11 seed
12. Georgia (7-2)
13. Boise State (8-1) | Projected No. 12 seed
14. SMU (8-1)
15. Texas A&M (7-2)
16. Kansas State (7-2)
17. Colorado (7-2)
18. Washington State (8-1)
19. Louisville (6-3)
20. Clemson (7-2)
21. South Carolina (6-3)
22. LSU (6-3)
23. Missouri (7-2)
24. Army (9-0)
25. Tulane (8-2)

Analysis by bowl expert Jerry Palm 

Although the second release of the College Football Playoff Rankings went largely to form, there were a couple of surprises.

The Big Ten dominated at the top with four teams in the top five, but no other team from the conference made an appearance past that point. Still, no conference has ever had four of the top five teams in any weekly CFP ranking. The SEC had nine teams overall, which is more than half of the league and 36% of the top 25. 

Five of those SEC teams are placed in the top 12, but only three would make the playoff if these were the final rankings with current conference leaders deemed champions.  

The five highest-ranked conference leaders are top-ranked Oregon, No. 3 Texas, sixth-ranked BYU and No. 13 Boise State, which is down one spot from last week. No. 14 SMU is undefeated in conference play and leads the ACC, but Miami is the higher-ranked team despite dropping to No. 9 following the loss at Georgia Tech. Using SMU as the ACC placeholder leaves out Ole Miss. Using Miami leaves out SMU. 

The No. 9 ranking for Miami was as low as could reasonably be expected after last week’s loss. The Hurricanes dropped below Notre Dame, which has a win at Georgia Tech earlier this season.  

No Group of Five team has ever finished ahead of a major conference team with the same number of losses or fewer. However, it is unlikely that the Broncos would hold off SMU if the Mustangs win the ACC.

The selection committee has always valued head-to-head results, and those are still being honored as much as possible. There have been 27 games played between two teams in this week’s top 25, and in only four cases is the winner ranked below the loser. In three of those cases, the loser now has a better overall record, so that’s not terribly surprising. But 6-3 South Carolina makes its season debut in the rankings at No. 21, one spot ahead of LSU, also 6-3, which beat the Gamecocks at South Carolina earlier this season.

The other new team to this week’s rankings is Tulane from the AAC as the Green Wave check in at No. 25. Tulane, along with Army, is undefeated in conference play and those two are on a collision course to meet for the AAC title.  

Boise State is likely to set a record for the highest-ranked team from the Group of Five with at least one loss. Memphis holds the mark for the highest final ranking for a one-loss Group of Five team with a 17th place finish in 2019. Tulane, meanwhile, finished 16th in the final rankings in 2022 with an 11-2 mark.