College Football Playoff rankings announced: Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson, Ohio State are the first four

Despite the fact Ohio State didn’t play yet again this week, and are in jeopardy of missing the Big Ten Championship because they might not play six regular season games as required by the conference, they weren’t penalized at all by the selection committee during the second poll sent out Tuesday night.

The big movers include Northwestern, who drop from #8 to #14 thanks to their loss to 29-20 loss at lowly Michigan State.

There are still six non-Power Five teams in the poll, led by Cincinnati at No. 7. They’ll likely have to play No. 24 twice: once on December 12th to close the regular season, and once again in the American Conference Championship on December 19th. But with the scheduling moves of the ACC today, it’s very possible the door to anyone else reaching the Final Four has been shut barring a catastrophic failure from those in front of them.

Here are the rankings from the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for December 1st:

1. Alabama (8-0)
2. Notre Dame (9-0)
3. Clemson (8-1)
4. Ohio State (4-0)
5. Texas A&M (6-1)
6. Florida (7-1)
7. Cincinnati (8-0)
8. Georgia (6-2)
9. Iowa State (7-2)
10. Miami (7-1)
11. Oklahoma (7-2)
12. Indiana (5-1)
13. BYU (9-0)
14. Northwestern (5-1)
15. Oklahoma State (6-2)
16. Wisconsin (2-1)
17. North Carolina (7-2)
18. Coastal Carolina (9-0)
19. Iowa (4-2)
20. USC (3-0)
21. Marshall (7-0)
22. Washington (3-0)
23. Oregon (3-1)
24. Tulsa (5-1)
25. Louisiana (8-1)