After an impressive win over Utah on Saturday, 35-6, the Oregon Ducks were ranked about as high as possible in the first College Football Playoff rankings. Oregon checked in a No. 6, just behind No. 5 Washington, the final unbeaten Power-5 team in the rankings.
The committee couldn’t put Oregon ahead of an unbeaten Washington team that beat them head-to-head, but the Ducks have been even more impressive than a few of the top 5 teams, including Washington. No matter what happens with Oregon the rest of the season, one thing is clear, the Ducks need the Huskies to lose to have a shot of making the playoff.
If the Ducks and Huskies win out, then they’ll meet in the Pac-12 Championship game, which will give Bo Nix & co. a chance to avenge their only loss, assuming they stay clean through the rest of the schedule.
Right behind Washington and Oregon is a similar situation. Since Texas beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide have made a case to be ahead of the Longhorns, but the committee is respecting those head-to-head matchups with Texas at seven and Alabama ranked No. 8.
Last season, Oregon tested itself in the non-conference against Ohio State and was blown out by the Buckeyes. This year the Ducks had Portland State, Texas Tech, and Hawaii to start the year. The other takeaway from this first ranking is this season’s schedule is much better.
For years, the committee has talked about how much it wants teams to test themselves, and they did put Ohio State at No. 1 for beating Big Ten rival Penn State, but the committee’s actions speak louder than their words. No one-loss team jumped ahead of the five undefeated teams. Even Texas, who beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa in a non-conference matchup wasn’t rewarded. That might be the best win on any team’s resume, and still, Texas is at No. 7.
The only thing that really matters in the committee’s eyes is being undefeated. That ship has sailed for the Ducks, so the only way to jump into the top 4 may be to avenge the loss to Washington, and they may still need some help.