College Football Playoff Rankings: TCU Moves to No. 3 Ahead of Florida State

The penultimate edition of the inaugural college football playoff rankings were unveiled Tuesday night on ESPN. This allows college football partisans a couple more days to continue debating the Top Four until this weekend’s games and the final rankings are released on Sunday. The headline on Tuesday is TCU moving up to No. 3 and undefeated Florida State dropping to No. 4 where it would hypothetically face No. 1 Alabama, should these rankings hold. Oregon remained No. 2 and will play No. 7 Arizona Friday night in the Pac-12 championship game.

“Florida State continues to be that undefeated team but they’ve struggled,” selection committee chair Jeff Long told ESPN’s Rece Davis when asked about the Seminoles standing in the poll.

Everything here remains fluid, obviously. TCU, which lost to Baylor on Oct. 11, plays Iowa State early Saturday while Baylor plays No. 9 Kansas State later in the day. The TCU/Baylor debate has been written about extensively on our site over the last couple weeks, should you need to refresh yourself.

No. 5 Ohio State plays No. 13 Wisconsin in the Big 10 championship game on Saturday. Florida State faces No. 11 Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship.

The Top 10

1. Alabama (11-1)
2. Oregon (11-1)
3. TCU (10-1)
4. Florida State (12-0)
5. Ohio State (11-1)
6. Baylor (10-1)
7. Arizona (10-2)
8. Michigan State (10-2)
9. Kansas State (9-2)
10. Mississippi State (10-2)