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Three of the top four and four of the top six in the first ever College Football playoff poll/ranking/whatever this is are SEC teams - as pretty much everyone expected. Fortunately for the rest of us, they will be playing each other later on in the season, hopefully knocking each other out and allowing the other kids to come and play. Mississippi State and Ole Miss still have yet to play; ditto Mississippi State and Alabama.
The Big 12 is represented by TCU at #7, Kansas State at #9, Baylor at #13, Oklahoma at #18, and West Virginia at #20. Not too shabby, but could be better. K-State and TCU have yet to play each other; ditto Baylor/Oklahoma, Kansas State/West Virginia, and Kansas State/Baylor.
Interestingly, Marshall, one of three unbeatens in FBS to this point, is not ranked in this setting. The highest ranked two-loss team is Oklahoma, and no three-loss teams are in the ranking.
Kansas non-conference foe Duke checked in at #24.
| Rank | Team | Conference | Toughest opponent left (per F/+) | If the season ended today ... |
| 1 | Mississippi State | SEC | Ole Miss | Sugar Bowl vs. Ole Miss |
| 2 | Florida State | ACC | Louisville | Rose Bowl vs. Auburn |
| 3 | Auburn | SEC | Ole Miss | Rose Bowl vs. Florida State |
| 4 | Ole Miss | SEC | Auburn | Sugar Bowl vs. Mississippi State |
| 5 | Oregon | Pac-12 | Stanford | New Year's bowl |
| 6 | Alabama | SEC | Auburn | Orange Bowl* |
| 7 | TCU | Big 12 | Kansas State | New Year's bowl |
| 8 | Michigan State | Big Ten | Ohio State | New Year's bowl |
| 9 | Kansas State | Big 12 | TCU | New Year's bowl |
| 10 | Notre Dame | Independent | Louisville | New Year's bowl |
| 11 | Georgia | SEC | Auburn | |
| 12 | Arizona | Pac-12 | Arizona State | |
| 13 | Baylor | Big 12 | Oklahoma | |
| 14 | Arizona State | Pac-12 | Notre Dame | |
| 15 | Nebraska | Big Ten | Wisconsin | |
| 16 | Ohio State | Big Ten | Michigan State | |
| 17 | Utah | Pac-12 | Oregon | |
| 18 | Oklahoma | Big 12 | Baylor | |
| 19 | LSU | SEC | Alabama | |
| 20 | West Virginia | Big 12 | TCU | |
| 21 | Clemson | ACC | Georgia Tech | Orange Bowl* |
| 22 | UCLA | Pac-12 | Stanford | |
| 23 | East Carolina | American | UCF | New Year's bowl* |
| 24 | Duke | ACC | Virginia Tech | |
| 25 | Louisville | ACC | Florida State |
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