Overview
- Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M held the top three, Georgia moved into No. 4, Alabama fell six spots to No. 10 after a 23-21 loss to Oklahoma, and the Sooners climbed to No. 8 with Notre Dame at No. 9.
- If the bracket were set today, the byes would go to Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M and Georgia, with first-round games projected as Tulane at Texas Tech, Miami at Ole Miss, Alabama at Oregon and Notre Dame at Oklahoma.
- Tulane entered at No. 24 to lead the Group of Five after South Florida lost to Navy, keeping the race for the guaranteed G5 champion berth unsettled.
- New committee chair Hunter Yurachek said Miami’s head-to-head win over Notre Dame has not been weighed because the teams have not been in a comparable evaluation pool, and No. 13 Miami still has a long shot at the ACC title game.
- Alabama remains in the current 12-team field with a path through the SEC championship, and ESPN Research projects a 71% chance the Tide reach Atlanta heading into the final rankings on Dec. 7.