Utah Ranked No. 12 in the First College Football Playoff Ranking

The first College Football Playoff Committee ranking came out today, and the Utah Utes (7-1, 4-1 Pac-12) are ranked No. 12. Utah ranks No. 13 in the AP Poll and No. 14 in the Amway Coaches Poll. Last season, Utah was frequently ranked higher in the CFP poll compared to their ranking in the AP and Coaches Poll, and this appears to be true at least so far this season. Utah is the second highest ranked team in the Pac-12 behind No. 11 Stanford. Utah will have to play one team currently ranked in their last four games, No. 23 UCLA. There are only three Pac-12 teams ranked in the CFP rankings, which is the same number ranked in the AP and Coaches Poll as well.

The big news is that undefeated national champion Ohio State is not ranked No. 1. Instead, they are ranked No. 3 behind No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 LSU, who are both undefeated. The No. 4 team is one-loss Alabama. There was a strong SEC bias in the first ranking last year with three SEC teams in the first top four last year. There are two in the top four this year. I disagree having a one-loss team when there are still 11 undefeated teams, many of which are in Power Five conferences. I also would not like to see two teams in from one conference. The rankings will get shaken up for the whole month of November, starting this weekend with No. 2 LSU traveling to No. 4 Alabama this Saturday, so one of those two teams will drop out in the next ranking.