Ohio State, UGA, Michigan, FSU atop CFP rankings

Ohio State took the No. 1 spot in the first College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night, while two-time defending national champion Georgia is right behind at No. 2.

Michigan, under NCAA investigation amid sign stealing allegations, is No. 3, while Florida State is No. 4 and Washington is No. 5. Oregon is the top-ranked one-loss team in the rankings at No. 6, while Texas is one spot ahead of Alabama thanks to the strength of its head-to-head win over the Tide in September.

With five undefeated Power 5 teams headed into the first rankings, the biggest question was how the committee would choose to separate them. Clearly, strength of schedule played a big role.

The Buckeyes have played a much stronger schedule to date than Georgia. They have two Top 15 victories over Penn State (No. 11) and Notre Dame (No. 15). Georgia has zero Top 25 victories at the moment and a strength of schedule that currently ranks No. 100, according to ESPN metrics. The Bulldogs have only beaten two FBS teams with winning records.

Michigan has played an even weaker schedule than Georgia, ranking No. 111 right now.

Those metrics will change in the coming weeks, though as both teams hit the hardest part of their respective schedules. Georgia has games against No. 12 Missouri, No. 10 Ole Miss and No. 17 Tennessee over the next three weeks. Michigan has No. 11 Penn State and No. 1 Ohio State remaining.

Once again, that rivalry matchup between the Buckeyes and Wolverines could have huge implications for the playoff.

As for Florida State and Washington, though the Huskies have the better victory (over No. 6 Oregon), they have struggled the last two weeks against losing teams — needing late comebacks against Arizona State and Stanford to win. Perhaps that played a role in the view of the committee. Like Georgia and Michigan, Washington has major matchups coming up that could help its strength of schedule — especially when compared to Florida State.

The Huskies have No. 20 USC, No. 18 Utah and No. 16 Oregon State coming up. As for the Seminoles, they only have one Top 25 victory at the moment, over No. 14 LSU. Playing in a league with only one other ranked team (No. 13 Louisville) has not seemed to have affected the way the committee views the Seminoles. Yet. Florida State and Louisville do not play each other in the regular season, meaning the Seminoles have zero ranked teams remaining on their schedule.

As for the other undefeated team that is eligible for the postseason, Air Force (8-0) came in ranked at No. 25. But the Falcons are not the top ranked Group of 5 school. Despite a loss, Tulane (7-1) is just ahead of Air Force at No. 24.