CFP rankings 2021: Oregon biggest winner, Oklahoma & Cincinnati biggest losers in first CFP rankings

The first CFP rankings were revealed on Tuesday Georgia was a big winner at No. 1 but who were the other College Football Playoff rankings winners and losers?

We’re more than two months into the 2021 college football season but, on Tuesday, we got our first taste of what the postseason could look like with the first release of the College Football Playoff rankings.

There was little drama that the Georgia Bulldogs would take the No. 1 spot in the first CFP rankings. After Kirby Smart’s team, though, the questions started. Where would Cincinnati be ranked? Would Oregon be ranked over Ohio State? Could one-loss Alabama crack the top four? What do we make of Oklahoma, Michigan State and even Wake Forest?

We now have our answer with the top-25 for the College Football Playoff rankings now having been released by the committee.

Here’s the full top 25 first CFP rankings that were revealed on Tuesday night:

1. Georgia Bulldogs
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Michigan State Spartans
4. Oregon Ducks
5. Ohio State Buckeyes
6. Oregon Ducks
7. Michigan Wolverines
8. Oklahoma Sooners
9. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
10. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
11. Oklahoma State Cowboys
12. Baylor Bears
13. Auburn Tigers
14. Texas A&M Aggies
15. BYU Cougars
16. Ole Miss Rebels
17. Mississippi State Bulldogs
18. Kentucky Wildcats
19. NC State Wolfpack
20. Minnesota Golden Gophers
21. Wisconsin Badgers
22. Iowa Hawkeyes
23. Fresno State Bulldogs
24. San Diego State Aztecs
25. Pittsburgh Panthers

Now that we have the full top 25 for the College Football Playoff rankings, let’s now break down who the big winners and losers are from the initial reveal.

Winners of the first CFP rankings release

Georgia Bulldogs (No. 1)

In a college football season in which parity has been king, the Georgia Bulldogs have been a clear cut above every other team in the country. With a perfect record and a slew of dominant performances against quality SEC opponents, the Dawgs were always going to be the No. 1 team in the first College Football Playoff rankings.

This team is perfectly positioned to make the playoff at this point. Barring a truly shocking performance from the Dawgs, they should dominate the rest of their schedule and stay at No. 1 in the CFP rankings as they head to the SEC Championship Game. And in that, particularly if they play Alabama, Georgia would have a prime case to make that they would be in the top four win or lose the conference title game.

Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 2)

The topic of discussion coming into the first CFP rankings was whether or not Alabama would make it into the top four. Not only did they get in, the Crimson Tide came in as the team directly behind Georgia in the rankings.

This feels absolutely crazy, it should be said, but there’s no doubt that the fans in Tuscaloosa are celebrating with this big win. This potentially opens the door for an SEC Championship Game loss to Georgia and still getting in as a two-loss team, which would be the first time it’s happened.

So much for the drama of if they’d be back in the playoff or not.

Oregon Ducks (No. 4)

Oregon or Ohio State in the top four — that was the big question everyone was asking and the Ducks ended up getting the nod from the committee, which is fortunate given that Mario Cristobal’s team certainly tried to bungle the situation with a loss to Stanford and narrow wins in games that should’ve been blowouts.

With that said, Oregon pulled it together last week against Colorado and, from a talent perspective, should run away with the Pac-12. If they can take care of business, they’re now in the driver’s seat to finally get the conference a representative in the playoff.

Losers of the first CFP rankings release

Oklahoma Sooners (No. 8)

If you wondered if the eye test would matter to the CFP rankings committee, you have your answer with the Sooners.

One of six remaining undefeated teams in college football this season, Oklahoma came in at just eighth. And if you’ve watched this team, that makes sense. Whether it was with Spencer Rattler against a team like West Virginia or even with Caleb Williams against a team like Kansas. OU has not been perfect but the fact that they are the only 9-0 team in the country and aren’t even sniffing the top four right now makes them an obvious loser.

Cincinnati Bearcats (No. 6)

Speaking of obvious losers, the College Football Playoff committee sent a clear message to the Group of 5: As long as the playoff is limited to the four “best” teams in the country, a non-Power 5 team isn’t getting in.

The Bearcats had the best opportunity of any Group of 5 team in history with an unbeaten record, high starting spot in the rankings, and a win over Notre Dame, a top-10 in the rankings. Yet, the committee put them at No. 6. That makes absolutely no sense and, frankly, it’s almost impossible for the Bearcats to get into the top four given the mountain they have to climb.

Ohio State Buckeyes (No. 5)

The hope for Ohio State getting into the top four was that the committee would value the Buckeyes improving since their loss to Oregon and overlook that head-to-head loss in the wake of the Ducks also losing and having stumbled at other times as well.

That, of course, was not the way things played out. There is still a lot left to be decided in the Big Ten moving forward but the fact of the matter is that Ohio State is now playing from behind if they want to make it into the playoff, even if it’s far from impossible.

UTSA Roadrunners (NR)

While UTSA may not be a big name, they are another of the remaining undefeated teams in college football. Yet, they didn’t even crack the top 25 of these rankings.

Look, the Roadrunners play in Conference-USA and no one was asking for them to be a top four team. But it’s downright disrespectful — just as much as Cincinnati at No. 6 — for this UTSA team to play as well as they have with the schedule they have and then have several three-loss teams make the top 25.

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