The College Football Playoff committee on Tuesday released its first rankings of the season, and there are two big takeaways.
One, they have Ohio State ranked No. 1. Two, they have the defending national champion Clemson Tigers ranked fifth, which means they would not be in the four-team playoff currently.
Though Clemson and its fans could take the rankings as a sign of disrespect, there is no real reason for them to panic yet.
LSU and Alabama are ranked two and three and play each other this weekend. Ohio State and Penn State are ranked one and four and will meet on November 23. At least two of the teams currently ahead of Clemson will end up with a loss, so if Clemson goes unbeaten, they will make the playoff.
The current CFP rankings do show us the committee does not think a ton of the extremely light schedule the ACC-dominating Tigers have played so far. Clemson is at NC State, home vs Wake Forest and at South Carolina in its final three regular season games before the conference championship game.
They will probably still make the playoff. Just be ready to see Dabo Swinney and Clemson fans talk about the disrespect they’re receiving. You know Nick Saban wishes his team were No. 5 so he could use it as motivation.
Dabo Swinney will absolutely use this to motivate his team. The disrespect/Little Ole Clemson/ROY Bus card are 100 percent all coming out.
— Grace Raynor (@gmraynor) November 6, 2019
