Oregon, Miami gets a slight bump in the College Football Playoff rankings

The College Football Playoff rankings shed light on where this year, “6-7” – flip-flopping Oregon and Ole Miss in those spots while keeping their top five teams the same in Tuesday night’s appearance.

Oregon’s impressive win over Southern California in one of last week’s few games between ranked teams led to the biggest change, moving the Ducks ahead of Mississippi, which did not play.

Another meaningful shift was Miami’s move to No. 12, in a switch with Utah when the Utes gave up 472 yards rushing in a tough win over Kansas State.

Two more rankings are to be revealed, ending on December 7 when the rankings set the 12-team bracket for the playoffs, which begin on December 19.

Pitt’s return to the rankings – at No. 22 – after being out for a week could mean a key Atlantic Coast Conference game this week against the Hurricanes, who need a win and some help to make the conference title game but still hope to make the playoff bracket at large.

“Miami is a team that really looks like they’re trying to look like a Miami team that started 5-0,” said Hunter Yurachek, chairman of the selection committee.

Following the Buckeyes for fourth in the four rankings were fellow undefeated teams Indiana and Texas A&M. Georgia ranked No. 4, followed by Texas Tech. Oregon and Mississippi were followed by Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama and BYU.

Ohio State and Indiana will play in what should be a 1 vs. 2 Big Ten title game if both rivals win games on the road over Thanksgiving weekend. Ohio State has a tougher task — against Michigan, which has moved up three spots to No. 15. Indiana plays Purdue.

No. 10 Alabama plays at Auburn with a spot in the Southeastern Conference title game on the line. The Tide’s opponent will be Texas A&M if the Aggies win at No. 16 Texas.

Notre Dame and Miami faced off this week

After some confusion last week about the weight given to Miami’s opening week win over Notre Dame, Yurachek said the teams were close enough in this week’s rankings to compete head-to-head. But still, the win wasn’t enough to push the Hurricanes past Notre Dame.

“We compare a lot of things when looking at closely ranked teams,” Yurachek said. “We have some teams between Miami and Notre Dame, like Alabama and BYU, that we’re also competing with Miami.”

Could Coffin’s job situation affect Ole Miss?

Among the factors the committee may consider is the availability of players and coaches, which threatens to put Ole Miss coach Lynn Kiffin’s job status in play.

Word from Oxford is that a decision will be made on Coffin’s potential move to LSU or Florida after this week’s game against Mississippi State. An Ole Miss team without one of the most sought-after coaches in the game wouldn’t have looked as good as it did with him.

Still, Yurachek wouldn’t tip his hand as to how that review might play out.

“We’ll take care of it when it happens,” Yurachek said. “We don’t look ahead. The loss of a player, the loss of a key coach is in the norms of how we rank teams, but we don’t have a data point on how we view Ole Miss without their coach.”

Ducks go where they should be

After Oregon’s 42-27 win over USC, coach Dan Lanning said his team deserves credit for the schedule it played — including a tough conference game during a week going against several unranked, double-digit underdogs in the SEC.

“We’re waiting to win their signature to really put them where they need to be,” Yurachek said.