Iowa has jumped ahead of Notre Dame to No. 3 in this week's Coaches Poll, out Sunday.
These rankings might offer a window into the College Football Playoff picture ahead of Week 13, which closes the regular season for most of the country. The Playoff's selection committee releases new rankings on Tuesday.
In Week 12, giants fell. Undefeated Ohio State lost at home against Michigan State, leaving Sparty on course for a conference title bout with Big Ten West clincher Iowa and leaving the Buckeyes in a state of public dysfunction. Undefeated Oklahoma State lost at home to Baylor, stalling its own Playoff dreams. Oklahoma lost quarterback Baker Mayfield but beat TCU, leaving the Sooners with a real shot at the Playoff bid TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma State have squandered with losses.
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Houston's undefeated season ended with a loss to Connecticut. Wisconsin lost heart-wrenchingly to Northwestern, North Carolina topped Virginia Tech in Frank Beamer's last home game, Arkansas somehow lost in November and Les Miles and LSU's month got even worse against Ole Miss.
| AP | Coaches | S&P+ | Massey | |
| 1 | Clemson (55) | Clemson (58) | Clemson | Alabama |
| 2 | Alabama (6) | Alabama (5) | Alabama | Clemson |
| 3 | Iowa | Iowa (1) | Michigan | Oklahoma |
| 4 | Notre Dame | Notre Dame | Oklahoma | Ohio State |
| 5 | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Ohio State | Notre Dame |
| 6 | Michigan State | Michigan State | Baylor | Baylor |
| 7 | Baylor | Baylor | Florida State | Michigan State |
| 8 | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ole Miss | Iowa |
| 9 | Oklahoma State | Florida | Notre Dame | Stanford |
| 10 | Florida | Oklahoma State | Florida | Michigan |
| 11 | North Carolina | North Carolina | Navy | Oklahoma State |
| 12 | Michigan | Stanford (T-12) | Stanford | Florida |
| 13 | Stanford | Michigan (T-12) | LSU | North Carolina |
| 14 | Florida State | Florida State | Michigan State | Navy |
| 15 | TCU | Navy | West Virginia | TCU |
| 16 | Navy | TCU | Western Kentucky | Ole Miss |
| 17 | Northwestern | Northwestern | UCLA | Florida State |
| 18 | Oregon | Oregon | TCU | Oregon |
| 19 | Ole Miss | Ole Miss | Oklahoma State | Mississippi State |
| 20 | Washington State | Washington State | Arkansas | Utah |
| 21 | Houston | Houston | Toledo | LSU |
| 22 | UCLA | Mississippi State | Bowling Green | Northwestern |
| 23 | Mississippi State | UCLA | Mississippi State | USC |
| 24 | Toledo | Temple | Tennessee | Houston |
| 25 | Temple | Utah | USC | Toledo |
The four rankings used here
The Associated Press Top 25: The longest-running and best-respected human poll. Didn't have any official bearing on the latter years of the BCS, and won't have any official bearing on the Playoff. Expect it to set the course for the committee, however, as most outlets (including SB Nation) will use the AP's rankings as the standard until the committee takes over in November. Usually comes out on Sundays about 2 p.m. ET.
The USA Today Coaches Poll: Formerly part of the BCS, and now just a poll. It tends to be more conservative than the AP's. Though polling athletic departments in order to rank other athletic departments is dubious, we still want multiple human polls in here, and this is the other big one. Releases early Sunday afternoons.
The Massey computer composite: A collection of ... every rating out there, which will be included as soon as it is updated. By including it here, we're giving extra weight to the two human polls, since they're already two of the dozens of ratings included in the Massey. It changes over the course of the week as more rankings arrive.
Bill Connelly's S&P+ ratings: Connelly's efficiency- and explosiveness-based metric parses each team's performance and adjusts it for strength of opposition. These ratings ultimately become part of each FBS team's advanced statistical profile. They're entirely computer-generated and don't signal an agenda against anybody's favorite team.
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