Alabama fell to No. 13 and Mississippi to No. 14 in the current College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night, leaving the SEC with just three teams in the projected field of 12 heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Penn State remained the top four in the rankings and Notre Dame moved up to No. 5. Miami (10-1) moved up to No. 6, Georgia (9-2) was No. 7, and Tennessee (9-2) is now No. 8, up three spots from last week.

No. 9 SMU advanced to the bracket for the first time, giving the ACC two teams in the 12-team bracket alongside Miami.

Indiana (10-1) fell five spots to No. 10 after its loss to Ohio State but remained in the projected field.

“Indiana played well at times against Ohio State, and Ohio State obviously pulled away in the second half,” said committee chairman Ward Manuel, who is also Michigan’s athletic director. “We felt like SMU has been playing some really dominant football lately as well.”

The projected top four seeds, which will go to the conference champions and receive a first-round bye, are also the same as last week: Oregon (Big Ten), Texas (SEC), Miami (ACC) and No. 11 Boise State (Mountain). West) are located at these locations.

No. 12 Clemson (9-2), another ACC team, is currently the first team eliminated from the group.

Another tumultuous week in the Big 12 produced a new top-ranked team in the conference, No. 16 Arizona State (9-2), which defeated BYU last week. The Sun Devils would be the projected No. 12 seed. Next in the Big 12 were No. 18 Iowa State, No. 19 BYU, No. 24 Kansas State and No. 25 Colorado.

Right behind the Sun Devils in 17th place is Tulane, the top-ranked team in the American Athletic Conference. The Green Wave has already secured a spot in the AAC title game against Army, which was eliminated from the rankings after losing to Notre Dame.

No conference had a wilder week than the SEC, where three ranked teams – Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M – lost on the road to unranked opponents. The Aggies (8-3) fell five spots to No. 20.

The Crimson Tide (8-3) and Rebels (8-3) are the first two SEC teams to leave the field. Both face an unranked in-state rival this weekend and are not in the running to win the SEC Championship. Texas A&M hosts Texas on Saturday, with the winner advancing to face Georgia in the SEC title game.

The other in-state rivalry game with playoff bets on both sides is in South Carolina, where Clemson (9-2) hosts the 15th-ranked Gamecocks (8-3).

guessing game

Perhaps the most interesting answer Manuel gave on this week’s conference call with reporters was whether the committee will ever discuss which team would win a hypothetical matchup.

The short answer: no.

“If it creeps into the conversation, I make sure we stop it. We don’t project,” Manuel said. “We don’t know. I’ve already said that 14 teams in the top 25 have lost in the last two weeks. So it’s hard to predict if this team plays the team that will win? If this team plays this team, who will be favored by Vegas and the sportsbooks? We can’t get involved in that because we can only deal with what happens on the field. For us it is the best and fairest way to judge teams based on what happens on the pitch. We can’t get into the projection.”

It just means…less?

When the committee began ranking teams in the first week of November, it looked as if the SEC had set a lock on adding four teams to the field and there was a real chance for five playoff teams.

Now it will take an upset or two to get past three, preferably in the ACC.

“We value winning. We care about how the teams play and in the end it is the result that counts,” said Manuel.

SMU has secured its spot in the ACC title game and Miami can join the Mustangs with a win this weekend at Syracuse.

If SMU and Miami can get to the title game in Charlotte, NC with just one loss each, the conference appears to be in solid shape for both to make the playoffs.

If Miami loses this weekend, Clemson would go to the ACC Championship Game. Whether the Tigers enter with two losses and a win against South Carolina or with three losses could also help determine whether the SEC can add a fourth team to the bracket.

The Crimson Tide, who have missed the four-team playoffs just twice in 10 years, appear to be the best bet to take advantage of any upsets. Alabama is ranked higher than Ole Miss and has a win against South Carolina that could help it hold off the Gamecocks.

A wild card for the SEC could be Texas A&M. With the Aggies still in play to win the conference, they could be a bid stealer. But perhaps the offer the Aggies are stealing comes from another SEC team, like Tennessee?

Press G5

For the second week in a row, the Big 12 is chasing Boise State and outside of a ranking that would give them a first-round bye.

Now the Big 12, where nine teams are still fighting for a place in the conference title, also has to be on guard.

With Tulane just one spot behind Arizona State, there’s a chance the AAC champion gets one of the five bids that go to the conference champions, leaving the Big 12 out of the equation altogether. Arizona State and Iowa State are the most likely championship game participants.

It could be difficult to keep up with Boise State without the Broncos losing. Their most likely opponent in the Mountain West championship game, UNLV, is ranked 22nd and has a pair of wins against Big 12 teams Houston and Kansas.

Stopping Tulane doesn’t seem to be that difficult as long as the Big 12 champion comes from the teams with the current rankings.

The Green Wave play Memphis (9-2) on Thanksgiving night, but with Army falling out of the rankings, they probably won’t get much of a lead in the AAC title game.

Tulane also lost at home to Kansas State in September, which could be a problem when comparing resumes to a Big 12 champion.

Required reading

(Photo: Brian Bahr/Getty Images)