CFP Rankings: Predicting How First Round of Rankings Shake Out

The first round of the CFP Rankings will be released Tuesday night on ESPN. Here's how to watch, and what to expect from the first round of the college football playoff rankings.

With the implementation of the first round of College Football Playoff rankings being released on Tuesday evening, there are new talking points that college football fans are soon to be clamoring over. Who's No. 1? How truly close are No.'s 5 & 6? Who's the best one-loss candidate with an outside shot at winning out? Who needs help with a loss elsewhere? 

So, here's how these football programs will be graded out by the committee: 

• Strength of schedule
• Conference championships (when decided)
• Head-to-head
• Results vs. common opponents
• Results vs. ranked opponents

CFP Rankings Predictions

When looking at the AP top 25, there are five remaining undefeated Power5 football programs. Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, and TCU. TCU, ranked 7th in the AP poll as well as the Coaches Poll, will likely be on the outside looking in tonight. 

Strength of Schedule

Tennessee currently has the third toughest strength of schedule in the country, highest among contenders for tonight's first four spots of the season. The Volunteers are followed by Ohio State at No. 4 in the country. Georgia is down at 18th in the country with Michigan rounding out the contenders at 30th overall. 

This strength of schedule debate will solve itself however considering the matchup this weekend between Georgia and Tennessee as well as the impending matchup in between Ohio State and Michigan to end the Big Ten regular season. 

This answers our next few categories of TBD — Conference Championships and Head to Heads. 

Prediction: Tennessee has the one quality win over a top-5 opponent to date, they get the top spot. Georgia has the second-best win of the season it would appear, beating a Top-10-ranked Oregon team by 46 points to start the season. 

1. Tennessee 
2. Georgia 
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan 
5. Alabama
6. Clemson 
7. TCU

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