Alabama Football Still No. 1 in College Playoff Rankings, FSU Remains No. 3

While Alabama Crimson Tide football stays on a roll, the Florida State Seminoles are sort of “stuck.” In the latest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night, FSU remains No. 3 behind No. 1 Alabama and the No. 2 Oregon Ducks.

This is the third straight week FSU has been ranked third by the College Football Playoff Committee. Two more weeks remain before the Committee releases its final college football playoff ranking of the year, with the Bama football team seemingly in control of its destiny.

Alabama handily beat Western Carolina last Saturday, as expected, while the Oregon Ducks football team dismantled the Colorado Buffaloes in Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. Florida State also won last weekend, but their victory over Boston College required a last-second field goal.

“I think there are a number of Committee members who look at [FSU] and see a team that has not controlled the games they’ve played in,” said College Football Playoff Committee chairman Jeff Long. “I think there are a number of Committee members who look at them and see … come-from-behind victories [as] a flaw in Florida State. But there are other Committee members who think that they just keep winning. The sign of a quality team is that they can come back and win.”

The Florida State Seminoles football team are one of only two FBS teams with an undefeated 11-0 record. Alabama, Oregon and Mississippi State, the other three teams ranked Tuesday in the CFB Playoff Committee’s top 4, all have 10-1 records.

In this inaugural season of the college football playoffs, the Playoff Committee is scheduled to release rankings on the next two Tuesdays. Next week (Dec. 2) marks the last ranking that “doesn’t count.” The Playoff Committee’s final ranking of the season will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 7. At that time the top four teams will be the “final four” who will participate in the first-ever college football playoff.

After a few weeks of movement, the top seven spots in the College Playoff rankings stayed the same week over week. The Alabama Crimson Tide lead the pack at No. 1, followed by Oregon at No. 2, Florida State at No. 3, Mississippi State at No. 4, TCU at No. 5, Ohio State at No. 6 and Baylor at No. 7.

The biggest movers were UCLA, which moved up to No. 8; Boise State, which made its debut in the playoff rankings at No. 23; and Marshall, the only other 11-0 FBS team, which came in at No. 24.

The full college football playoff rankings for Nov. 25 are: