Alabama dropped to No. 13 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night and Mississippi fell to No. 14, leaving the SEC with only three teams in the projected field of 12 heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Penn State remained the top four in the rankings and Notre Dame moved up to No. 5. Miami (10-1) moved up to No. 6, Georgia (9-2) was No. 7, and Tennessee (9-2) is now No. 8, up three spots from last week.
No. 9 SMU moved into the bracket for the first time, giving the ACC two teams in the 12-team bracket alongside Miami.
Indiana (10-1) dropped five spots to No. 10 after losing to Ohio State, but stayed in the projected field.
The projected top-four seeds that go to conference champions and receive a bye in the first round also remained the same as last week: Oregon (Big Ten), Texas (SEC), Miami (ACC) and No. 11 Boise State (Mountain West) are in those spots.
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No. 12 Clemson (9-2), another ACC team, is currently the first team out of the bracket.
Another turbulent week in the Big 12 produced a new highest-ranked team from the conference, No. 16 Arizona State (9-2), which knocked off BYU last week. The Sun Devils would be the projected No. 12 seed. Next up in the Big 12 was No. 18 Iowa State, No. 19 BYU, No. 24 Kansas State and No. 25 Colorado.
Right behind the Sun Devils at No. 17 is Tulane, the highest-ranked team from the American Athletic Conference. The Green Wave has already clinched a spot in the AAC title game against Army, which fell out of the rankings after losing to Notre Dame.
No conference had a wilder week than the SEC, where three ranked teams — Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M — lost to unranked opponents on the road. The Aggies (8-3) dropped five spots to No. 20.
The Crimson Tide (8-3) and Rebels (8-3) are the first two teams out of the field now. Each faces an unranked in-state rival this weekend and are out of contention to win the SEC championship. Texas A&M hosts Texas on Saturday, with the winner facing Georgia in the SEC title game.
The other in-state rivalry game with playoff stakes on both sides is in South Carolina, where Clemson (9-2) hosts the 15th-ranked Gamecocks (8-3).
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