Oregon Ducks climb to third in College Football Playoff rankings

The College Football Playoff announced its second installment of the selection committee top 25 rankings, and this time a Pac-12 team, the Oregon Ducks, was included in one of the top four spots.

The selection committee will prepare five more rankings this season, including the final one on Selection Day, Sunday, December 7. The top four teams in the final rankings will play in the semifinals on January 1, 2015, at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.

“As we said last time, our meeting this week would begin with a clean sheet of paper, and it did,” said selection chairman Jeff Long. “We firmly believe this is one of the strengths of the committee. We have twelve individuals who work each week to decide who the best teams are in college football. We are not bound by last week’s results and we watch the games with a fresh perspective each week.”

After last week's fiasco of having 3 SEC schools in the top four spots, including an Ole Miss team that had just lost that same week, the committee had to move Oregon up this week after the Rebels lost for a second consecutive week.

One-loss Alabama remained just outside the top 4, moving up to the fifth spot.  A second Pac-12 school, Arizona State (7-1), also cracked the top 10 for the first time as well.

Oregon controls its own destiny and can clinch the Pac-12's North Division and a spot in the Pac-12’s Football Championship Game with one more win.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot more football left to be played in order to clear up the Pac-12's South Division race. As that division's only one loss team, Arizona State controls its own destiny. However, four two-loss teams are lurking behind the Sun Devils.

The selection committee will continue to meet in person for the remainder of the season to review game action and issue its new rankings.  Below are the most recent rankings:

1  Mississippi State 8-0
2  Florida State 8-0
3  Auburn 7-1
4  Oregon 8-1
5  Alabama 7-1
6  TCU 7-1
7  Kansas State 7-1
8  Michigan State 7-1
9  Arizona State 7-1
10  Notre Dame 7-1
11  Mississippi 7-2
12  Baylor 7-1
13  Nebraska 8-1
14  Ohio State 7-1
15  Oklahoma 6-2
16  LSU 7-2
17  Utah 6-2
18  UCLA 7-2
19  Arizona 6-2
20  Georgia 6-2
21  Clemson 6-2
22  Duke 7-1
23  West Virginia 6-3
24  Georgia Tech 7-2
25  Wisconsin 6-2

By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services