Second CFP Rankings: Oregon Up to No. 6, USC at No. 8

TCU, coached by former Cal coach, moves up to No. 4. Four Pac-12 teams in top 13, five in top 25.

Oregon moved up two spots in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday, putting the Ducks at No. 6 and in position to get into the CFP national semifinals if things break right for them down the stretch.

Interestingly, a majority of the respected sites that publish bowl projections predict that a Pac-12 team will be one of the four teams in the College Football Playoff.

The question is whether Oregon can climb into the top four despite its 49-3 loss to Georgia in Atlanta in the season opener.

"It certainly is part of what we talk about as we go through this," CFP committee chairman Boo Corrigan regarding that 46-point loss. "But the other part is they won eight consecutive games, averaging over 40 points a game, beating UCLA that is well respected by the committee. Again we're looking at the overall body of work, where it's not about one game. It's about what they have done the entire season."

USC is the other Pac-12 team in good position to earn one of the four berths in the CFP national-title race, because the Trojans are ranked No. 8 by the CFP committee this week. 

The big weekend for Oregon and USC will be Nov. 19, when Oregon hosts Utah, which is No. 13 this week, and USC faces UCLA, which is No. 12 currently.

The Trojans then have a pivotal Nov. 26 home game against Notre Dame, which moved up to No. 20 this week after beating Clemson decisively. 

The Pac-12 has not had a team in the College Football Playoff since the 2016 season.

Most of the country was focused on the No. 4 spot, with Georgia, Ohio State, and Michigan expected to be the top three, which they were.

The No. 4 spot this week belongs to unbeaten TCU and first-year Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes, who was Cal's head coach before being fired following the 2016 season and being replaced by Justin Wilcox.

"Look, this is early in the process," Dykes said Tuesday night. "I have a lot of faith in the committee that they're going to recognize teams that continue to win. We haven't always won pretty. There's been some struggles. We've had to make some second-half comebacks, but at the end of the day we've played a good schedule. I think the Big 12 is as good a conference as there is in the country top to bottom. There's no layups in this league."

Dykes was fired at Cal following a 5-7 season in 2016, and that came one year after the Golden Bears went 8-5 in Jared Goff's final season at Cal.

The Horned Frogs beat out Tennessee, the other team in contention for the No. 4 spot, but TCU faces a challenge this weekend when it faces No. 18 Texas on the Longhorns' home field.

The Pac-12 again has five teams in the top 25, with Washington at No. 25, and only the SEC, with six representatives, has more teams in the top 25.

The CFP top 10

1. Georgia

2. Ohio State

3. Michigan

4. TCU

5. Tennessee

6. Oregon

7. LSU

8. USC

9. Alabama

10. Clemson

Other Pac-12 teams ranked:

12. UCLA

13. Utah

25. Washington

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Cover photo of USC quarterback Caleb Williams is by Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports

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