The first College Football Playoff rankings finally dropped on Tuesday night, giving teams and fans a rough road map through the final month of the season. Unsurprisingly, Oregon's status as the (current) No. 1 team in the country was confirmed by the selection committee.
While there weren't a ton of surprises in the Top 25, the committee did give us a good glimpse into their thought process in the first year of the 12-team playoff format.
College Football Playoff: The new 12-team format, rankings and seeding, explained
We know the top four power conference winners and the highest-ranked Group of 5 teams are all guaranteed a spot, but it's what the bracket could look like for the final seven seeds that have our attention.
Let's walk through some of the biggest winners and losers from the first rankings. Some of which will lead to teams and leagues celebrating on Tuesday, while others are left wondering what else they can do.
No team has transitioned to their new conference in the latest round of realignment quite as well as Oregon and the College Football Playoff committee rewarded the Ducks for their efforts on Tuesday.
Despite a wild travel schedule and a slow start on offense to begin the year, Oregon has passed every test with flying colors. It beat No. 2 Ohio State, No 20. Illinois and avoided stumbles on the road at historically hostile Michigan and Purdue. The Ducks have the easiest path forward with a Week 12 road trip to Wisconsin sandwiched between Maryland and Washington home games.
The committee just gave Oregon a strong chance to lock up the No. 1 seed if it wins out.
9Windiana got some respect in the rankings, but nowhere near the amount it deserves. While three of the Big Ten's biggest football brands in Penn State, Ohio State and Oregon find themselves in the top six, an undefeated Hoosiers team that sits atop the conference is ranked ninth. Clearly the committee has not Googled Curt Cignetti yet. If it had, it's hard to see how No. 7 Tennessee would be ahead in the rankings.
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Fortunately for IU, it can make the committee eat its actions with wins over Michigan and Ohio State over the next three weeks.
Whoa wait a second. Weren't Notre Dame's playoff dreams dead after Northern Illinois pulled off the Upset of the Year in South Bend two months ago?
Apparently, running over semi-competent teams in Louisville and Georgia Tech have changed things. Yet the biggest wins on Notre Dame's resume are a Week 1 win at a then-unknown Texas A&M and a neutral site beatdown of a surging Navy team, 51-14. The Fighting Irish have a strong case to make the playoff as long as no one looks at it too closely. A No. 10 ranking on Tuesday is an extra life for Marcus Freeman's team. Now we'll see if they waste it or not.
The power conferences combined to put just two programs into the 12-team field in the first rankings: No. 9 BYU (which would grab the No. 4 seed) and No. 3 Miami.
The message couldn't be any more clear from the committee to the ACC and Big 12: Only your conference champion is getting into the playoff.
SMU at No. 13 is the first team out after laying a smackdown on No. 18 Pitt on Saturday. Meanwhile, No. 17 Iowa State -- a 7-1 team that lost a wild game to Texas Tech by one point in Week 10 -- is the next highest-ranked team for the Big 12. If the ACC and Big 12 hoped an expanded field would give their conferences more opportunities for postseason glory, the reality that the 12-team field features eight teams from the SEC and Big Ten combined has to sting quite a bit. Even if it was predictable.
Remember 10 days ago when the sky was falling in Columbus and the season was on the brink of disaster? It seems that may have been a bit premature. After a season-defining victory at Penn State in Week 10, the Buckeyes got a massive stroke of luck in a ranking they had virtually no chance of topping.
Despite missing out on a bye, No. 2 Ohio State has the easiest path to the semifinals by far at the moment. The Buckeyes would host a home game in the first round against No. 12 Boise State, then face No. 9 BYU at a neutral site since the Big 12 champion would earn a bye regardless of its ranking.
Ohio State -- which remains the odds-on favorite to win the title -- still seems like it could afford another loss down the stretch and make it into the playoff. Though we wouldn't recommend trying this route.