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Georgia Remains Atop Third College Football Playoff Rankings

The third College Football Playoff rankings of the season have been released, with the Bulldogs holding onto the top spot.

Wilton Jackson

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The third College Football Playoff rankings of the season were released Tuesday, with Georgia remaining at No. 1 for the second consecutive week.

In a week where both Oregon and UCLA suffered upsets at home, to Washington and Arizona, respectively, the Pac-12 may have crushed its chances of having a team in this year’s playoff. The last time two top-10 teams in the Pac-12 lost at home during the same weekend was October 2014, when the Ducks suffered a 31–24 loss to Arizona and Utah pulled off the upset against UCLA. 

Georgia, coming off a dominant win over Mississippi State, will face Kentucky on Saturday and close the regular season against Georgia Tech in the Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry matchup.

In total, eight ranked teams suffered losses over the weekend. After the Bulldogs, Ohio State (10–0) and Michigan (10–0) retained their spots at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, while Tennessee (9–1) and TCU (10–0) round out the top five.

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TCU defeated Texas in a tough defensive battle, something that CFP chair Boo Corrigan noted as the reason the Horned Frogs retained its spot at No. 4.

“For their [TCU] defense to give up three points… the other was a scoop and score by Texas … but as you look at the whole package again, they continue to improve,” Corrigan said on the broadcast. “They’ve earned the opportunity to be in the top four.”

Meanwhile, after a 55–17 win against Colorado on Friday, the committee felt that the dominance on offense by Southern California under first-year head coach Lincoln Riley paved the way for the Trojans’ latest ranking at No. 7.

“They’ve continued to win games,” Corrigan said. “They have the one loss … in a really emotional game at Utah. They got the win over Oregon State. They’ve continued to win, they’ve continued offensively scoring 40-plus points a game, having over 500 yards a game and that really drove the day for them.” 

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Here are the full second College Football Playoff rankings:

  1. Georgia
  2. Ohio State
  3. Michigan
  4. TCU
  5. Tennessee
  6. LSU
  7. Southern California 
  8. Alabama
  9. Clemson
  10. Utah
  11. Penn State
  12. Oregon
  13. North Carolina 
  14. Ole Miss
  15. Kansas State 
  16. UCLA
  17. Washington
  18. Notre Dame
  19. Florida State
  20. UCF
  21. Tulane
  22. Oklahoma State
  23. Oregon State
  24. NC State
  25. Cincinnati

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Wilton Jackson
WILTON JACKSON

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