Georgia No. 4 in CFP Rankings, remains part of committee debate

ATHENS — Georgia remained No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings released on Tuesday night, but the Bulldogs strengthened their position with the road win at Auburn.

The Top 6 teams in the rankings remained unchanged:

1. LSU

2. Ohio State

3. Clemson

4. Georgia

5. Alabama

6. Oregon

College Football Playoff Committee chairman Rob Mullens said much remains under consideration.

“There’s a lot of discussion (for teams) 4 through 6,” Mullens said. “Georgia added to their resume with an impressive win at Auburn.”

The Bulldogs will need to add to it again when they play Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

Georgia can’t afford to lose another game if it wants to remain in control of its destiny, be that against the Aggies, Georgia Tech on Nov. 30, or in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 7 in Atlanta.

The Bulldogs clinched their spot in the league title game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, likely against LSU, with the 21-14 win at Auburn.

The No. 1-ranked Bayou Bengals can clinch their spot in the SEC Championship Game with a home win over Arkansas on Saturday.

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit noted that Alabama’s perch at No. 5 could be precarious with the injury to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the Tide’s win over Mississippi State.

“Alabama is a wild card right now,” Herbstreit said, “with a big part of their offense out in Tua.”

Tagovailoa suffered a season-ending hip injury, which Mullens said the committee is aware of.

“Obviously we spent considerable time talking about it, we’re glad he’s on his way to recovering,” Mullens said. “Alabama had a convincing win at the end of the day, it didn’t impact the rankings this week.

“We do not project, we do not look forward, our charge is to rank the teams through Week 12.”

The Crimson Tide, which wouldn’t seem to be a threat to a one-loss Georgia, plays West Carolina this week and closes with a road game at Auburn.

In the scenario Georgia wins out, Alabama would likely need Ohio State or Clemson to lose to find its way back into the College Football Playoff.

The Tide is the only program to make the CFP each of the five years since its inception, in 2014.

There was some thought that Georgia might actually move up to No. 3 with yet another win over a top 16 team.

The Bulldogs have wins over No. 11 Florida, No. 15 Auburn and No. 16 Notre Dame.

Clemson, which is No. 3, is undefeated but does not have any wins over any current Top 25 teams.

Mullens, however, did not give any indication of how close Georgia might be to breaking into the top pool of three teams.

“I don’t think there’s a way to evaluate that,” Mullens said. “I don’t know there’s a measurement that could reference the gap.

“What I can tell you is 4 through 8 and a lot of debate.”

Mullens indicated the CFP Committee didn’t necessarily take it into consideration that Georgia has played teams coming off bye weeks in five of its past six games, but that schedule sequence is a factor.

“We see the schedules, I don’t know if we’re specific of when byes fall,” Mullens said. “We see the sequence of the dates.

“(Georgia) is in the pool in the first two rounds, which is (teams) one through six, so they’re a part of that debate.”