College football rankings: Iowa over Ohio State in final Playoff top 25
That ranking means the Hawkeyes are headed to the Rose Bowl.
Conference championship weekend featured a wide range of game types, from shootouts in the ACC and Pac-12 to defensive struggles in the SEC and Big Ten. Ultimately, a defensively dominant Alabama pulled away from Florida. Christian McCaffrey ripped into USC to push Stanford to a Pac-12 title. Clemson recovered from a slow start to beat North Carolina, and game officials sealed up the ACC for the Tigers. In Indianapolis, a freshman Michigan State running back who wouldn't be denied sent the Spartans past Iowa and into the Playoff.
The book is virtually closed on college football’s regular season and conference championship games. Bowl selections come out on Sunday, and the only other contest left to play is next weekend’s Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. Had the Midshipmen beaten Houston on the day after Thanksgiving, they could have forced the Playoff committee to hold its final slotting for another week. But that didn’t happen, so the Playoff is nearly ready to roll.
| AP | Coaches | Playoff | |
| 1 | Clemson (51) | Clemson | Clemson |
| 2 | Alabama (9) | Alabama | Alabama |
| 3 | Michigan State (1) | Oklahoma | Michigan State |
| 4 | Oklahoma | Michigan State | Oklahoma |
| 5 | Stanford | Ohio State | Iowa |
| 6 | Iowa | Stanford | Stanford |
| 7 | Ohio State | Iowa | Ohio State |
| 8 | Notre Dame | Florida State | Notre Dame |
| 9 | Florida State | Notre Dame | Florida State |
| 10 | North Carolina | TCU | North Carolina |
| 11 | TCU | North Carolina | TCU |
| 12 | Northwestern | Northwestern | Ole Miss |
| 13 | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma State | Northwestern |
| 14 | Houston | Oregon | Michigan |
| 15 | Oregon | Ole Miss | Oregon |
| 16 | Ole Miss | Houston | Oklahoma State |
| 17 | Michigan | Michigan | Baylor |
| 18 | Baylor | Florida | Houston |
| 19 | Florida | Baylor | Florida |
| 20 | Utah | Utah | LSU |
| 21 | Navy | LSU | Navy |
| 22 | LSU | Navy | Utah |
| 23 | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Tennessee |
| 24 | Temple | Temple | Temple |
| 25 | Western Kentucky | Georgia | USC |
The four rankings used here
College Football Playoff official selection committee rankings. The only list that really matters. The Playoff’s selection committee releases its final national rankings on Sunday, setting in stone the top four teams and most of the New Year’s Six bowls.
The Associated Press Top 25: The longest-running and best-respected human poll. Didn't have any official bearing on the latter years of the BCS, and won't have any official bearing on the Playoff. Expect it to set the course for the committee, however, as most outlets (including SB Nation) will use the AP's rankings as the standard until the committee takes over in November. Usually comes out on Sundays about 2 p.m. ET.
The USA Today Coaches Poll: Formerly part of the BCS, and now just a poll. It tends to be more conservative than the AP's. Though polling athletic departments in order to rank other athletic departments is dubious, we still want multiple human polls in here, and this is the other big one. Releases early Sunday afternoons.
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