Georgia, Ohio St., Michigan, TCU remain on top of CFP rankings

The top four teams in the College Football Playoff rankings remained the same after overcoming tough games against unranked opponents.

Georgia was the top ranked team for the third week in a row, followed by Ohio State and Michigan. Both the Ohio State and Michigan teams trailed in the second half of last week's games, but they still remained perfect. Both Michigan and Texas Christian needed field goals in the final minutes to hold off their opponents.

USC's dramatic road win over crosstown rival UCLA wasn't enough to leapfrog two-loss LSU. USC's first top-five ranking in more than a year came in the Coaches' poll on Sunday. After its loss at Oregon, the USC fell out of the top 15.

"That was a dominant conversation for the last couple of days, to make sure we were looking at it the right way," said Boo Corrigan, the athletic director at NC State. There are reasons for USC to be in the top five.

Tennessee's loss to South Carolina knocked it out of the top ten.

LSU plays Texas A&M before facing Georgia in the SEC title game. Notre Dame moved up three spots to 15th in the selection committee's rankings. The winner of the USC-Oregon game will play the winner of the Utah-Oregon State game in the conference title game.

If Oregon loses this week, Washington and Utah will be able to reach the conference championship.

The rankings have Alabama and Clemson moving up. South Carolina will not host a ranked team on Saturday because of the wins over Florida State and Louisville. After losing to Georgia Tech at home this past Saturday, North Carolina fell four spots in the rankings to 17th, setting up an Atlantic Coast Conference Championship game with the winner of that game.

"You're looking for football judgement, and that game against Notre Dame, that continues to be part of the discussion." We saw Alabama at seven and Clemson at eight.

The loser of the Iowa State-TCU game will face the winner of the Kansas State-Texas game. If Kansas State beats Kansas, it will get a spot. Texas would leave if Kansas State fell.

It's the same thing every week. TCU has been able to find ways to win games.

Following its home win over SMU and home loss to Navy, Tulane is once again the highest ranked team in the group. The winner of Friday's game will host the conference title game next week. The winner of the Cincinnati-Tulane game could face the winner of the Houston-UCF game in the title game.