College Football Playoff Rankings: Texas Climbs to No. 6 and Georgia Takes No. 1 — With Texas Tech Exactly on the Bubble at No. 12
The committee's second Top 25, released Tuesday night, puts four Texas programs in four different kinds of trouble and promise: Texas up one to No. 6 and inside the 12-team field, Texas Tech up three to No. 12 — the last seat on the plane — Houston at No. 14, SMU in the first group left out, and Texas A&M nowhere on the list with No. 8 Tennessee arriving Saturday.
The top of the list turned over completely. Georgia (8–1) rose from No. 2 to No. 1 after beating Ole Miss 42–7, Utah (9–0) climbed to No. 2 after beating BYU, Alabama (7–2) jumped from No. 5 to No. 3 after a 31–13 win at LSU, unbeaten UCLA (9–0) rose to No. 4, and Notre Dame (8–1) vaulted from No. 11 to No. 5 after beating Miami 31–24 — the loss that knocked the Hurricanes from No. 1 to No. 7 in a single week.
Texas holds the state's best seat. The Longhorns (7–2) moved up one spot to No. 6 after beating Missouri 34–20, inside the 12-team field with three games left: at LSU, home against Arkansas, and the regular-season finale at Texas A&M. The state's most precarious seat belongs to Texas Tech (8–1), up three to No. 12 after outlasting West Virginia 53–48 — exactly on the field's edge, with trips to Oklahoma State and Baylor and a home date with TCU still to survive. Houston (7–2) sits two spots behind the line at No. 14 after beating Cincinnati 31–24.
SMU is close enough to see the field and not in it. The Mustangs (7–2) landed in the committee's first group of five teams just outside the Top 25 after beating Virginia Tech 51–28, with Wake Forest — itself ranked No. 13 — visiting next, then a trip to No. 5 Notre Dame that now doubles as the loudest argument SMU can make. TCU appears on the list only as a line in someone else's résumé: Arizona's 29–28 win over the Horned Frogs helped lift the Wildcats to No. 23.
And Texas A&M is simply out. The Aggies went unranked after losing 17–9 at home to South Carolina, which climbed to No. 17 on the strength of it — and the schedule offers no soft landing: No. 8 Tennessee (7–2), up five spots after routing Kentucky 34–6, plays at Kyle Field on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). The committee updates the list every Tuesday from here, and the only ranking that finally counts is the 12-team bracket released on Sunday, December 6.
