College Football Playoff Rankings: Predicting The Initial Poll
Where will Utah State, Fresno State be ranked in first CFP poll?
There will be two Mountain West teams ranked
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The first College Football Playoff poll will be released Tuesday night and we do know that there will be four Group of Five teams with some order of Central Florida, Fresno State, Houston, and Utah State.
The first thing to realize is to not panic with these rankings as there is a lot of football left to be played so do not freak out where teams are ranked. In the end, typically wins take care of business and rank teams where they should be.
In fhese first rankings expect Utah State and Fresno State to be in the 20s and probably closer to 25 than 20.
When looking at the rest of the poll odds are the top four will not be the same even after this first set of rankings since Alabama takes on LSU and those two teams will be in the top four. Speaking of Alabama, there could be an argument that they should not be No. 1.
At first glance that seems very odd, but the committee looks at strength of schedule and even though the Crimson Tide are just crushing all comers but remember last year that it was Georgia who topped the first playoff poll.
Expect the Pac-12 to be the lowest rated team from a power conference with Washington State and Utah leading the way but do not expect either to be a threat to crash the playoff — barring chaos, of course — and be just outside the top 10.
Yes, Kentucky will be a top 10(!) team and has a path to at the very least make a New Year’s Six game, and if they beat a top-10 Georgia team this weekend they could crash the playoff as the rest of its games could be wins. They face Tennessee, Louisville, and Middle Tennessee State; then a shot in the SEC title game.
Notre Dame is playing very well too and they could be the reason only two conferences get a spot in the playoff. The Pac-12 is out and the Big 12 is too if Oklahoma loses again. The Big Ten has the winner of Michigan or Ohio State and assuming that team stays with one loss.
Clemson seems to be a lock as does Alabama and that leaves the Irish in the playoff and probably a second SEC team. Even if Oklahoma does win out it does not mean they will pass Georgia or LSU for a top-four spot.
Projected College Football Playoff Poll
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Alabama
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Clemson
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LSU
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Notre Dame
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Michigan
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Georgia
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Oklahoma
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Kentucky
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Florida
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Ohio State
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Penn State
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Washington State
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West Virginia
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Utah
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Texas
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UCF
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Iowa
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Mississippi State
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Texas A&M
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Syracuse
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Houston
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Utah State
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Fresno State
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Virginia
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Washington
