College Football Playoff Rankings: Oregon Passes Florida State, TCU Moves Into Top Four

The third installment of the College Football Playoff Rankings were unveiled Tuesday night on ESPN. Mississippi State (9-0) remained No. 1 and were followed by one-loss Oregon, which moved ahead of undefeated Florida State. The Seminoles slipped to the No. 3 spot. TCU, fresh off its win over Kansas State, rounded out the Top 4 ahead of Alabama which checked in at No. 5 despite its overtime win at LSU Saturday night. Both the Horned Frogs and Crimson Tide are 8-1. TCU was No. 6 last week. Alabama hosts Mississippi State on Saturday.

Here’s what committee chair Jeff Long said about the decision to move Oregon ahead of Florida State, via USA Today:

"“Oregon has three top 25 victories. Florida State has only two. And if you look at Oregon, they’ve had two of those top 25 victories on the road. It’s razor-thin, but based on this week’s body of work, we felt Oregon had a very slight edge over Florida State.”"

Arizona State, Baylor, Ohio State, Auburn and Ole Miss complete the Top 10.

College football fans will probably spend the next couple days debating why TCU is ahead of Baylor, too, when the Bears won the head-to-head meeting between the schools. The TBL staff debated this earlier today and can elaborate in much more detail.