Ole Miss lost a coach but gained in the College Football Rankings released Tuesday, moving up a spot to No. 6 despite the sudden departure of Lane Kiffin to LSU.
Undefeated Ohio State and Indiana remained at 1 and 2 in the rankings, while Georgia moved to third and Texas Tech rose to No. 4. The rest of the top 12: Oregon, Mississippi, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU and Miami.
The final rankings come out Sunday, the day after a slate of conference title games determines the five automatic qualifiers for the 12-team bracket.
The playoffs start Dec. 19 and end a month later with the title game outside Miami.
As newsy as the selection committee’s decision not to dock Mississippi for losing its coach — something it has the latitude to do — was a flip-flop between Alabama and Notre Dame, with the Tide moving up to No. 9 and the Irish down to 10.
Both teams won last week to improve to 10-2, and Alabama now has a better chance to make the 12-team bracket even with a loss Saturday to Georgia, which would be the Tide’s third this season, in the SEC title game.
Now, Notre Dame finds itself in a precarious position on the bubble despite a 10-game winning streak.
The Irish can’t afford too many upsets in the title games, namely a BYU win over Texas Tech in the Big 12.
In another move that could have a huge impact, the committee put James Madison of the Sun Belt Conference at No. 25, higher than unranked Duke, which plays No. 17 Virginia for the ACC title.
If Duke and James Madison win, then James Madison could deny the ACC an automatic bid. Those go to the five best-ranked conference titlists. The American seems to have a hold on one of those, with No. 20 Tulane and No. 24 North Texas slated for that title game Friday.
