3 takeaways from the first College Football Playoff rankings

The first College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night and here are three takeaways. 

For the first time in the 2023 season, we have heard from the College Football Playoff selection committee, which released its first set of top-25 rankings on Tuesday night.

In a bit of a surprise, Ohio State took the No. 1 ranking, followed by Georgia, Michigan, and Florida State. The teams on the outside looking in are Washington (No. 5), Oregon (No. 6), Texas (No. 7), and Alabama. Oklahoma is also at No. 9 and Ole Miss rounded out the top 10.

There are always things to learn when the committee ranks teams and here are three takeaways from the first set of College Football Playoff rankings.

Ohio State is a weird No. 1

I understand the logic of the College Football Playoff selection committee. Ohio State has two wins over top-15 teams. The Buckeyes also won at Wisconsin. Georgia and Michigan don’t have any victories over top-25 teams. Those programs have also dominated the competition.

The committee does give a lot of respect to the Ohio State resume. I don’t see that impacting Michigan at all though. The winner of Michigan and Ohio State is likely going to win the Big Ten and take the playoff spot.

But could Ohio State make it as an 11-1 team again? It seems possible. It might require a two-loss champion in the Pac-12 or maybe Oklahoma winning the Big 12, but there could be a debate if Ohio State finishes with one loss.

Outside of Georgia, there’s nobody that feels like they can make it without winning their league — outside of the Buckeyes who did it a season ago.