Oregon Football Debuts at No. 8 in First College Football Playoff Rankings

Five Pac-12 teams have earned a spot in the latest top 25 college football playoff rankings.

Josh Parker | Nov 2, 2022

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Oregon Ducks

The first College Football Playoff rankings were released Wednesday night with some new movement within the top 10.

The Oregon Ducks debuted at No. 8 with the USC Trojans right behind them at No. 9, followed by UCLA at No. 12, Utah at No. 14 and Oregon State squeaking in at No. 23.

Here is the complete list of the CFP rankings.

1. Tennessee

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Clemson

5. Michigan

6. Alabama

7. TCU

8. Oregon

9. USC

10. LSU

11. Ole Miss

12. UCLA

13. Kansas State

14. Utah

15. Penn State

16. Illinois

17. North Carolina

18. Oklahoma State

19. Tulane

20. Syracuse

21. Wake Forest

22. NC State

23. Oregon State

24. Texas

25. UCF

With only a few games left in the regular season that will feature ranked matchups, these initial rankings are sure to be shaken up in the coming weeks. The Ducks are the leading competitors to represent the Pac-12 in a potential playoff bid down the road, but that does depend on how these next few games play out.

The Ducks are leaning on their offense more than they have in past years as they've been averaging 42.4 points per game and over 526 yards of offense, which has helped them establish early leads in a majority of games.

The defense has been slowly building, fixing past mistakes such as missed tackles, missed assignments and lapses in coverage but seems to struggle late in the game by giving up points in garbage time seemingly every week.

Regardless, the Ducks have been solid all year since their only loss against No. 3 Georgia. The biggest what ifs for Oregon range from who they could potentially be playing in a Pac-12 title game, whether it be the USC Trojans, a rematch with the Bruins of UCLA, or another team that works their way up in these next four weeks such as Utah.

There are multiple strong front runners for the playoffs that will play each other before the final rankings are released and there's still time for plenty of chaos.

Matchups to watch

No. 3 Georgia vs No.1 Tennessee Nov. 5

No.2 Ohio State vs No.5 Michigan Nov. 26

Potential No. 6 Alabama vs either Georgia or Tennessee in a SEC Championship

Oregon, USC, UCLA, Utah in possible Pac-12 championship

No. 7 TCU remaining games vs. Texas Tech, @ Texas, @ Baylor, vs. Iowa State

No. 4 Clemson vs. Notre Dame Nov. 5, vs. South Carolina Nov. 26

The Ducks will begin a long three week stretch of top conference opponents after this weekend’s matchup against the Colorado Buffaloes. Every game matters and will have a direct impact on Oregon's ability to make its fourth straight Pac-12 championship game and first college football playoff since 2014.

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Published Nov 2, 2022

JOSH PARKER

Josh Parker is a student at the University of North Florida who will be graduating in the winter of 2022 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports Management. He has spent the last six years building vast sports experience as a Division 1 football player at Stetson University, varsity football coach at Nease and Bishop Kenny High Schools. He primarily covers football and recruiting at Ducks Digest.