CFP 2017 Rankings: Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame Top List

Two SEC programs head the list of the 2017 College Football Playoff standings, and another big name comes in third.

College Football Playoff Rankings 2017

Georgia, Alabama and Notre Dame are — in order — the top three teams in the committee’s initial top 25, released Tuesday evening. Alabama, however, is ranked above Georgia in the AP poll.

Defending national champions Clemson and Oklahoma round out the top five on the CFP rankings. Rounding out the top ten are Ohio State, Penn State, TCU, Wisconsin and Miami. The latter two are undefeated, at 8-0 and 7-0 respectively.

All six teams ranked 3-8 are 7-1 this season. The Fighting Irish’s only loss thus far came at home against the Georgia Bulldogs.

If the standings hold, Notre Dame could potentially leapfrog Georgia, should the Bulldogs lose to the Crimson Tide in the SEC title game.

“I felt like if we continued to win football games we would create our own story at the end of the year,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly told ESPN.

Notre Dame also blew out Michigan State (No. 24), Southern California (No. 17) and North Carolina State (No. 20). They will visit the Miami Hurricanes on Nov. 11.

Over the first three seasons of the playoff, a total of five teams have been ranked in the top four of the initial ranking and gone on to reach the semifinals: Florida State (which was second) in 2014; Clemson (first) and Alabama (fourth) in 2015; and Alabama (first) and Clemson (second) in 2016.

“For the teams five through seven, their head-to-head results were very important to the committee,” CFP committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said.

Stanford comes in at No. 21, followed by Arizona. The Wildcats — led by star quarterback Khalil Tate are ahead of Memphis, Michigan State and Washington State.

No. 12 Washington (7-1) is the highest-ranked Pac-12 team.

Here is the top 25 CFP list for 2017:

Rank	Team	Next
1	Georgia, 8-0	South Carolina, -24
2	Alabama, 8-0	LSU, -21
3	Notre Dame, 7-1	Wake Forest, -14
4	Clemson, 7-1	at NC State, -7
5	Oklahoma, 7-1	at Oklahoma State, +3
6	Ohio State, 7-1	at Iowa, -17
7	Penn State, 7-1	at Michigan State, -7.5
8	TCU, 7-1	Texas, -7
9	Wisconsin, 8-0	at Indiana, -10
10	Miami, 7-0	Virginia Tech, +2.5
11	Oklahoma State, 7-1	Oklahoma, -3
12	Washington, 7-1	Oregon, -24
13	Virginia Tech, 7-1	at Miami, -2.5
14	Auburn, 6-2	at Texas A&M, -15
15	Iowa State, 6-2	at West Virginia, +2.5
16	Mississippi State, 6-2	UMass, -28
17	USC, 7-2	Arizona, -7.5
18	UCF, 7-0	at SMU, -14
19	LSU, 6-2	at Alabama, +21
20	NC State, 6-2	Clemson, +7
21	Stanford, 6-2	at Washington State, +2
22	Arizona, 6-2	at USC, +7.5
23	Memphis, 7-1	at Tulsa, -12
24	Michigan State, 6-2	Penn State, +7.5
25	Washington State, 7-2	Stanford, -2

JACKSONVILLE, FL – OCTOBER 28: Lorenzo Carter #7 of the Georgia Bulldogs celebrates with teammates after a sack against the Florida Gators in the first quarter of a game at EverBank Field on October 28, 2017 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)