1 of 5 | Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard (18) runs out of the grasp of Indian Hoosiers defender C.J. West (8) on a run in the third quarter Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo
Nov. 27 (UPI) — Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Penn State held on to the top spots in the latest edition of the College Football Playoff rankings, the selection committee announced. Three other schools dropped from the projected list.
The No. 1 Oregon Ducks (11-0), who were on bye, and No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (10-1) held their spots for the fourth-consecutive week. No. 3 Texas Longhorns (10-1) and No. 4 Penn State Nittany Lions (10-1) followed them for the third-straight week.
A fourth edition of the rankings is coming Tuesday. Selection day for the first expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff will be Dec. 8.
“We have 13 people who all don’t see everything the same way,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, chairman of the selection committee, said during a teleconference. “It’s not one of these rooms where people are afraid to speak their minds if they think differently about how teams are playing.
“There are moments when there’s a lot of debate in the room and people are expressing different perspectives, and that is the great thing about what we do. That gets us to a point where we can really figure that we have done everything we can do and made all the arguments and done the votes in a way that we get what we believe are the best 25 teams in the country.”
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-1), who beat the Army Black Knights (9-1), moved up No. 5 from No. 6. They replaced the Indiana Hoosiers (10-1), who dropped to No. 10 after losing to the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Black Knights, who were ranked No. 19 last week, dropped out of the Top 25.
“We moved them out of the Top 25 based on what others had done also behind them, and so we’ll continue to monitor Army, and we still think that they’re a really good team,” Manuel said. “We just felt that given where they were this week that they moved out of The top 25.”
The Alabama Crimson Tide (8-2), who lost to the Oklahoma Sooners (6-5), tumbled from to No. 13 from No. 7 The Miami Hurricanes (10-1) beat the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (4-7) to climb to No. 6 from No. 8. The Georgia Bulldogs (9-2) used a 59-21 victory over the UMass Minutemen to climb to No. 7 from No. 10.
The Tennessee Volunteers, who trounced the UTEP Miners (2-9) 56-0, moved up to No. 8 from No. 11. The SMU Mustangs (10-1) beat the Virginia Cavaliers (5-6) jumped to No. 9 from No. 13.
The No. 11 Boise State Broncos (10-1),