Ohio State was ranked No. 2 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night, coming in behind No. 1 Oregon for the second consecutive week.
The Buckeyes stay at No. 2 following their convincing 45-0 win over Purdue last Saturday, while the Ducks reclaim their top spot after defeating Maryland 39-18 at home. These rankings mean that Ohio State, as the second highest-ranked team in the Big Ten in the CFP rankings, are once again seeded No. 5 in this week’s projected CFP bracket, where it would host a first-round playoff game against No. 12 seed and 13th-ranked Boise State.
Due to Georgia’s loss to now-No. 11 Ole Miss, the top five of the CFP poll are now dominated by the Big Ten. With the Bulldogs now out of the bracket and dropping to No. 12 in the rankings, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana have now cracked the top five, ranking just shy of No. 3 Texas. This is the first time in the CFP era that four of the top five teams are from the same conference.
Penn State now occupies the No. 6 seed in the projected bracket, set to host a first-round game against 11-seed Ole Miss. Indiana earned the No. 7 seed, where they would host No. 10 seed Alabama in what would be a David vs. Goliath matchup in Bloomington, Ind.
The other first-round matchup in the bracket is No. 8 seed Tennessee vs. No. 9 seed Notre Dame. The Volunteers and Fighting Irish are ranked No. 7 and No. 8 in the poll respectively, due to No. 6 BYU and No. 9 Miami occupying two of the top four seeds as the highest-ranked teams in their respective conferences.
The Cougars are the third seed in the projected bracket, while the Hurricanes are the No. 4 seed despite them losing Georgia Tech this past weekend in an upset loss on the road. The other bye is occupied by second-seeded Texas.
With three more weeks of the regular season and a championship weekend still left to play, the bracket could see some significant change over those few weeks with some new teams entering the fray. This is especially the case in the Big 12 and ACC, where teams such as No. 16 Kansas State and No. 17 Colorado could jump BYU in the coming weeks in the Big 12, while No. 14 SMU, No. 19 Louisville and No. 20 could jump Miami.
Automatic bids are given to four highest-ranked conference champions at the end of the season.
The College Football Playoff will release their new rankings and bracket every Tuesday night from now until the final rankings reveal after championship weekend on Dec. 8.
