College Football Playoff rankings: First reactions

Let the games begin. This past Tuesday, on October 31st, there was more than one reason to be afraid. While most people were out and about in costumes, coming up with diabolical ways to leech off their kid's candy treasure, the college football fan had another reason to be on edge on this night. It was to see where their faithful team stood in the looming college football playoff rankings. Now if you are a Clemson fan, you are probably thanking the Almighty that somehow, by some miracle, you are currently in the top four. However, it wasn't so kind to the undefeated teams such as Miami or Wisconsin. 

Let's start with Georgia getting the nod at number one over the scary monster that is Alabama. This actually isn't a big deal in my opinion. Alabama was relying on their season opening match-up against Florida State to carry their strength of schedule, but the Seminoles find themselves struggling to find any source of offense as they are coming off an embarrassing 35-3 loss to Boston College. While Georgia's marquee win so far, Notre Dame, is off to a great start and finds themselves at #3 in the first rankings. 

Now let's ring Clemson's doorbell and see what we have. The Tigers had the best start to the season of any team in the nation. At one point, they knocked off three straight top 15 teams in Auburn, Louisville, and Virginia Tech; but how long can those wins outweigh the loss to Syracuse, who lost to Middle Tennessee State. Now I know Clemson lost Kelly Bryant in that game, and I am sure the committee took that into consideration, but come on, it's Syracuse. The win over Louisville was impressive and a complete game from Clemson, however the Cardinals are not the same team we have seen in recent years. They have gone 3-3 since that game against Clemson, with two of those losses to Boston College and Wake Forest. Louisville finds themselves in 6th place of the ACC Atlantic. Auburn was looking to be heading on the right track and then stumbled against LSU, who suffered a rare home loss to Troy. Virginia Tech has yet to lose since facing Clemson, but they get a date with undefeated Miami this week so we will see if that holds up.

The real losers here are Miami and Wisconsin. Both teams are undefeated, but find themselves behind six one-loss teams. Neither Miami nor Wisconsin have a quality win against a ranked team yet, but Miami will get their chance this week as Miami faces #13 Virginia Tech while Wisconsin currently has zero ranked teams on their schedule. It will be interesting to see how the committee continues to value strength of schedule and quality wins. 

These are just the first rankings. We know the chaos will shake things up, so as I've already said. Let the games begin.