Georgia reached the top four in the College Football Playoff selection committee's latest rankings, released Tuesday night. The Bulldogs moved up two spots to No. 4 and are the highest-ranked one-loss team.
The committee put a new team atop the rankings, elevating LSU to No. 1 after its win at Alabama. Ohio State, last week's top team, was dropped to No. 2, flip-flopping positions with LSU.
Defending national champion Clemson moved up to No. 3 after being ranked No. 5 last week, and Alabama fell to No. 5.
Rounding out the top 10 in the committee's rankings this week: No. 6 Oregon, No. 7 Utah, No. 8 Minnesota, No. 9 Penn State and No. 10 Oklahoma.
Undefeated Minnesota, the committee's No. 17 team last week, soared in the rankings after beating Penn State, which was ranked No. 4 a week ago.
Rob Mullens, chair of the playoff committee, said Georgia passed Alabama in Tuesday's rankings on the strength of the Bulldogs' wins over No. 11 Florida and No. 16 Notre Dame. Those wins overcame the Bulldogs' home loss to South Carolina in the committee's assessment.
"The committee spent a lot of time comparing Georgia and Alabama," Mullens said on a conference call Tuesday night. "In the end, Georgia's two wins over ranked teams made the difference. Alabama clearly is a strong team, but the committee gave the No. 4 spot to Georgia."
Georgia's ranking doesn't really alter the Bulldogs' path to the playoff, which likely will require winning its three remaining regular-season games and the SEC Championship game. The Bulldogs play Saturday at Auburn, ranked No. 12 by the playoff committee Tuesday.
The elevation of LSU to the No. 1 spot was based on its win at Alabama and three previous wins over top-20 teams (Florida, Auburn and Texas), Mullens said.
The 13-member committee will re-rank the teams each of the next four weeks, culminating Dec. 8 with the rankings that will set the field and bracket for the four-team playoff. One of the playoff semifinals this season will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The other semifinal will be in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
