Texas A&M is a surprise No. 4

The championship game will be played on January 9, 2017 at Tampa, Fla.

15 in 2014’s debut of College Football Playoff rankings, which were released heading into Week 10 of that season.

Muffet McGraw returns most of the core from a team that went 33-2 last season.

Make it three of a kind for the Utes, as they are ranked No. 16 in the first College Football Playoff Poll of 2016.

The counter is that the Wolverines have some impressive wins of their own. The first priority for the Huskies is to take care of business the rest of the way, which includes road trips to California and Washington State, a home game against USC and a potential Pac-12 Championship rematch against USC or a match up against Colorado. That No. 14 ranking made Oklahoma the highest ranked team from the Big 12, ahead of Baylor and West Virginia, making the Sooners the conference’s best shot at sending a team to the playoff.

Coming up behind the Crimson Tide are the Clemson Tigers. Like Louisville, for Ohio State to win its conference, a different undefeated would have to lose.

UConn (3-6, 1-5 American), which has lost three straight games, faces Temple (6-3, 4-1) on Friday. The question was whether MI or Clemson would be No. 2? Regardless, it is exciting to realize that a ten-win season, a spot in the ACC Championship, and consideration in the Playoff Rankings is a reality for the Hokies.

The three who still control their own fate: If No. 6 Ohio State beats MI on November 26, the Buckeyes will win the division and compete for the Big Ten championship. “Texas A&M has wins over four teams that have better than.500 records, compared to Washington only having two wins over teams with better than.500 records”. This might change later in the season, as MI faces Iowa on November 12 and Ohio State on November 26.

Rounding out the last of the initial playoff teams is a bit of a surprise with the Texas A&M Aggies. For now, the Occam’s razor says four power-conference teams are undefeated, so put them in the top four spots.

Is Tennessee for sure eliminated from the race for the SEC East title? The Aggies are in the same situation as MI.

“If you’re in (the first ranking), that doesn’t mean you’ve got a golden ticket, and if you’re not in it, that doesn’t mean you’re out of it”, Swinney said Tuesday before the rankings were released. “The victor of the Big Ten, if it’s Wisconsin, Ohio State or MI – or probably even Nebraska at this point – gets into the playoff”. Beating Stanford 44-6 is not easy, ever, even if the Cardinal is not playing well this season.

What got little debate was who was No. 1.

Not exactly a sterling slate for the Pac-12 this week.

Urban Meyer’s crew is on the outside looking in, but they have plenty of opportunity to move up. But they did and now Aggie fans everywhere sit in the stressful yet enviable spot of knowing all they have to do is win out and they should officially be in the college football playoff.