Indiana Comes in #2 in Latest College Football Playoff Rankings

Indiana Comes in #2 in Latest College Football Playoff Rankings, Notre Dame at #9

IRVING, TX..–Ohio State remains at the top of the College Football Playoff rankings for the second consecutive week, with the Indiana Hoosiers holding onto the second spot and the Texas A&M Aggies at third.

In the latest rankings released Tuesday night, Alabama and Georgia completed the top five. Miami and South Florida made significant moves up the rankings, with Pittsburgh rising to No. 22.

The playoff bracket will be finalized on December 7, with the 12-team playoff starting on December 19.

Indiana held on to beat Penn State last Saturday in Happy Valley 27-24 on a late touchdown pass from quarterback Fernando Mendoza to Lawrence North graduate Omar Cooper. Penn State is now 3-6 on the season.

“It was one of our longer discussions in our meetings,” CFP committee chair Mack Rhoades, the athletic director at Baylor, said on ESPN’s rankings release show Tuesday night regarding the choice between Hoosiers and Aggies at No. 2. “Indiana, we gave them the edge defensively, and certainly, offensively, as well. When you look at both of these teams, they’re really close. They’re really close defensively. Give Indiana the edge. And they’re really close offensively. Certainly, gave Indiana the slight edge there. Indiana finding a way to win Fernando Mendoza, the second rated quarterback in passing efficiency. Those were all conversations. But again, that was the second longest discussion in the room. Two really, really good teams, really, really close.”

Indiana came in at #2 in the first CFP rankings on November 4th as well.

The 7-2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish moved up from 10th to 9th in these latest rankings.

“They’ve won seven straight. I think early in the year they lost the two by a total of four points. Defensively I think they struggled a little bit. Feels like certainly the Arkansas game was a turning point for them offensively. The committee really like Notre Dame as a complete team, again, defensively. Their run game is as good as anybody, if not the best in the country when you think about their two backs, Love and Price. Then Carr at the quarterback spot, he’s the third ranked quarterback in terms of passing efficiency in the country. Those are all the things that we talked about and looked at as a committee and obviously gave them an edge over Vanderbilt,” said Rhodes about the Irish.

Indiana (10-0, 7-0 in Big Ten) will play their final home game of the regular season on November 15 against 3-6 Wisconsin. Notre Dame plays at #22 Pittsburgh (7-2) on November 15.

The two semifinal games will take place at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Jan. 8 and 9.

The CFP National Championship presented by AT&T is scheduled for Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

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