The start of November always brings around the reveal of the top 25 teams in College Football that are eligible for the 4-team playoffs in January. With TCU and Penn State both losing this past weekend it definitely shook things up a bit at the top seeing as those two teams are out of the top six at the moment. There's also a new number one team in the country and maybe a controversial team at number three.
Top 25 teams
Here's a list of the top 25 college football teams in the country:
- 25 - Washington State
- 24 - Michigan State
- 23 - Memphis
- 22 - Arizona
- 21 - Stanford
- 20 - NC State
- 19 - LSU
- 18 - USF
- 17 - USC
- 16 - Mississippi State
- 15 - Iowa State
- 14 - Auburn
- 13 - Virginia Teach
- 12 - Washington
- 11 - Oklahoma State
- 10 - Miami
- 9 - Wisconsin
- 8 - TCU
- 7 - Penn State
- 6 - Ohio State
- 5 - Oklahoma
- 4 - Clemson
- 3 - Notre Dame
- 2 - Alabama
- 1 - Georgia
It's not too surprising that Georgia took the top spot over Alabama because Georgia has a better resume at this point.
It is interesting where Ohio State and Notre Dame ended up though. Ohio State is fresh off a win over Penn State, who was ranked number 2 in the nation at that point, but there are ranked below Oklahoma. Oklahoma beat Ohio State earlier in the year and the committee put that into consideration when ranking them and not just focusing on the beating a former number 2 team. Clemson being at 4 means that the loss at Syracuse did not hurt them as much as some thought it might. It was a bad loss but they have wins over Auburn, Louisville, and Virginia Tech this year and those were valued more than the one loss. Notre Dame has more wins over any ranked team in the top 4 but most didn't think they would break the top 4 this soon since they do have one loss.
The one loss is over number 1 Georgia so that's probably the reason why they are number 4.
Post ranking games
Auburn is the highest ranked two-loss team in the country being number 14 at the moment. They're also the only team to play number one Georgia and number two Alabama. Auburn's only loss is to number 19 LSU and an SEC Championship is still a realistic thing for them.
Miami is ranked 10 at the moment and they play Notre Dame on November 11th. If they beat them then that puts them as arguably the best ACC team over Clemson since they will be undefeated. Miami also plays Virginia Teach this weekend and that will be a tough game for the Canes. It is a home game but it's still an ACC game and gets them closer to an ACC Championship appearance with a win.
Oklahoma plays Oklahoma State this weekend and Oklahoma has to have this win to stay in the playoff hunt because having two losses pretty much means you're out.
There's still a solid month left in the regular season and some teams have opportunities to go higher and have a shot at the playoffs. Others will try and win out to get into a conference championship game. We'll see how things go this weekend because new rankings will be out next Tuesday.
