College Football Playoff rankings: Boise State leaps to No. 4 seed, Georgia re-enters top 12

Boise State moved up one spot to No. 12 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night and into position to receive a first-round bye, while Georgia re-entered the field of 12.

The Bulldogs jumped to No. 10 after defeating Tennessee on Saturday, knocking the Volunteers back to No. 11 and making them the first team out of the bracket.

The third CFP rankings — only two more to go before the ones that matter on Dec. 8 — featured an unchanged top-five, dominated by four Big Ten teams: No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana.

The Buckeyes (9-1) host the unbeaten Hoosiers on Saturday in their third top-five matchup this season. Ohio State split road games against Oregon (11-0) and Penn State (9-1) earlier this year.

Notre Dame moved up to No. 6, followed by Alabama, Miami and Ole Miss at No. 9. The Hurricanes are the highest-ranked ACC team, in position to receive a bye if they can win the conference.

Losses by BYU and Tennessee cleared the way for changes after that.

The Cougars’ first loss of the season, at home against Kansas, dropped them eight spots to No. 14 behind No. 13 SMU from the ACC. The Cougars beat the Mustangs in September in Dallas.

Committee chairman and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said BYU’s comeback wins over Oklahoma State and Utah, both teams with losing records, in recent weeks also played a part in the Cougars’ precipitous drop.

“It was just something the committee had been monitoring all along,” Manuel said. “Look, we give a lot of credit when teams win and so we don’t penalize teams for winning close … or winning too big. But we do value wins, and so that’s where we saw BYU.

“But given some of those games that they played and the close wins that they had, it just was an indicator that some of the teams that were below them in the rankings last week should move ahead of them is how the committee assessed it.”

BYU is still the highest-ranked Big 12 team and projected into the field as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions, but not high enough to receive one of the four first-round byes.

That goes to Boise State, who is projected to be the Mountain West champion.

Can Boise State hold on?

It’s going to be tough. The Big 12 has four ranked teams, including No. 16 Colorado, No. 21 Arizona State and No. 22 Iowa State.

BYU and the newly ranked Sun Devils play Saturday in Tempe, giving the winner an opportunity for a victory against a ranked team.

None of those other teams face each other over the last two weeks of the regular season, but it does set up the possibility for a Big 12 Championship Game matching top-20 teams.

Boise State (9-1) could get another game against a ranked team in its conference championship game — if No. 24 UNLV (8-2) can get into that game. Currently, Colorado State is second in the Mountain West standings.

Boise State beat UNLV in Las Vegas earlier this season. The Broncos and Heisman Trophy contender Ashton Jeanty also have a last-second loss against Oregon on their resume.

This week’s hot spots

Last week, Kansas changed the dynamics of the Playoff race and probably eliminated the possibility of the Big 12 getting an at-large bid. The Jayhawks have a chance to play spoiler again this week when they host Colorado at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Three top teams are favored on the road by 10 to 14 points, according to BetMGM.

Penn State is an 11.5-point favorite at Minnesota; Alabama is favored by 13.5 at Oklahoma; and Ole Miss is a 10-point favorite at suddenly dangerous Florida.

Army’s big chance

This week, No. 19 Army gets its big chance against Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The Cadets (9-0) are already locked into the American Athletic Conference Championship Game against No. 20 Tulane.

But if the Army will have a real chance to become one of the five highest-ranked conference champions with one of the weakest schedules in the country, it will need to beat the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame has won eight straight games since being upset by Northern Illinois, including a 51-14 victory over Navy last month that ended the Midshipmen’s unbeaten run.

Required reading

(Photo: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)