March 29, 2024

Alabama leads the penultimate CFP rankings as the top five teams held steady; Iowa moves to sixth place

The top five teams in the penultimate classification in the College Football Qualifiers, released on Tuesday, remained unchanged, while Iowa State’s qualifying hopes received a boost and Cincinnati took another blow.

Alabama continues to lead the ranking at number one, followed by No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Clemson, No. 4 Ohio and No. 5 Texas A&M. Notre Dame and Clemson are set to meet for the second time this season in an ACC Championship match on Saturday.

Nick Saban heads to Crimson Tide (10-0) for the SEC Championship match to face Florida No. 7, which relegates just one place after losing 37-34 at home to 3-5 LSU. Ohio State, which recently played on December 5 and has scored only five games this season, is ranked 14th in Northwestern in the Big Ten.

Iowa, which had been inactive this past weekend, moved up to sixth place to enter the Big 12 championship match against Oklahoma No. 10. The Cyclones, Gators, and No 8 Georgia all lost, but are ahead of No. 9 unbeaten Cincinnati (8- 0), which dropped one place in each of the last two rankings despite not playing since Nov. 21 at UCF.

Bearcats finally got a chance to impress the committee in their IAAF American Athletics Conference title match against No.23 Tulsa, which is moving up. But even a win could keep them behind the Big 12 champions and possibly Texas A&M, who are set to play Tennessee without ranking this week. Georgia is now in a dormant state after canceling its match against Vanderbilt due to COVID-19 and other crew availability issues with the Commodores.

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Neither Notre Dame nor Clemson played last weekend, but Notre Dame’s fortunes in the CFP improved after North Carolina’s 62-26 win over Miami on the road. Tar Hiles climbed twice to 15th, while Miami slipped eight places to # 18. Notre Dame beat North Carolina 17-31 on November 27 at Chapel Hill. Even if the Fighting Irish lost to Clemson, their profile appears strong enough to stay in the top four.

Coastal Carolina (11-0) needed a late touchdown on Troy to become the first FBS team to score 11 wins. The Forwards moved up to 12th to enter the Sunbelt Championship match against the 19th-seeded Louisiana.

USC (5-0) The top-ranked Pac-12 team remains at 13th, advancing two places, but the Trojans lack a signature win after having to cancel a match with Colorado, which fell to 25th after its first. Loss of the season. Clay Helton’s team plays unranked for Oregon on Friday in the Pac-12 Championship match.

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San Jose State makes its debut in the CFP Ranking at 24th after a 6–0 start, the best team since 1939. The Spartans will face Boise State without a rating in Saturday’s Mountain West Championship match in Las Vegas.

BYU and NC State are among the nine teams that climbed one place in this week’s rankings, scoring # 17 and # 22, respectively.

The CFP selection committee revealed its final rankings, including the four semi-finalists, on Sunday.