After an early snub, Washington moved into a premium spot in the latest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night.
The undefeated Huskies, who didn't crack the top four in the first round of the playoff rankings, earned the No. 4 position in this week's poll.
The top three spots remained unchanged, with No. 1 Alabama (9-0), No. 2 Clemson (9-0) and No. 3 Michigan (9-0) retaining their positions.
Ohio State (8-1), a team that some thought might have earned a top-four spot after a dominant 62-3 win over Nebraska, was ranked No. 5.
Texas A&M, which surprised many by claiming the No. 4 spot in the opening round of the rankings despite carrying a loss to No. 1 Alabama, suffered a 35-28 defeat to unranked Mississippi State and cleared the way for the Huskies to move up. The Aggies fell to No. 8.
While Washington was ranked behind a one-loss Texas A&M team in the first round of playoff rankings, the Huskies managed to pull ahead of a strong one-loss Ohio State during the second week of rankings.
Playoff selection committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said it was easy to award the Huskies the No. 4 spot.
"What's different this week is you have to look at the one-loss team that Washington was being compared against last week, that one-loss team had a one loss to at the time No. 1-ranked Alabama," Hocutt said on ESPN. "When you look at the one-loss team Ohio State at No. 5 this week, their loss was to Penn State.
"The selection committee continues to be impressed with Washington and what we see doing on the football field each and every week, they've been very consistent and handled everything that's come in front of them."
Texas A&M's ugly loss also helped Louisville, with the Cardinals (8-1) shifting up to the No. 6 position after demolishing Boston College 52-7.
Elsewhere in the poll, Florida State was among the teams that moved up, going from No. 22 to No. 18. After a humbling loss at Arkansas, Florida tumbled from the No. 11 spot last week all the way out of the rankings.
Among Group of 5 programs, Western Michigan is ranked No. 21, just ahead of No. 22 Boise State.
The College Football Playoff selection committee released their second rankings Tuesday. The final poll will be revealed live on ESPN at noon Sunday, Dec. 4. The top four teams qualify for the two semifinal games, which will be held at the Fiesta and Peach bowls on Dec. 31. The winners will meet in the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 9, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
The remaining games that compose the New Year's Six access bowl games _ Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton _ will select the highest-ranked remaining teams that fill their criteria. The highest-ranked conference champion from the Group of 5 conferences _ American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt _ also will receive a spot.
The selection committee is composed of 12 members: Kirby Hocutt, Barry Alvarez, Jeff Bower, Herb Deromedi, Tom Jernstedt, Bobby Johnson, Jeff Long, Rob Mullens, Dan Radakovich, Condoleeza Rice, Steve Wieberg and Tyrone Willingham.
Here are the full playoff rankings:
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Michigan
4. Washington
5. Ohio State
6. Louisville
7. Wisconsin
8. Texas A&M
9. Auburn
10. Penn State
11. Oklahoma
12. Colorado
13. Oklahoma State
14. Virginia Tech
15. Utah
16. West Virginia
17. North Carolina
18. Florida State
19. Nebraska
20. USC
21. Western Michigan
22. Boise State
23. Washington State
24. LSU
25. Arkansas
