LSU Moves Up To Number 5 In College Football Playoff Rankings

Last night, the College Football Playoff rankings were released leading up to the final week of the regular season and the LSU Tigers moved up a spot from number 6 to number 5 in the weekly rankings.

The Tigers continue to climb up the rankings after debuting at number 10. With five straight wins, LSU is one of the hottest teams in the country. LSU has a chance to do something that has not been done in the College Football Playoff era and that is have a team with two losses get into the playoff.

Since the first College Football Playoff standings have been released, LSU and USC are the only two teams to have improved their ranking. At 5, this is the highest ranking for LSU since 2019 when the Tigers won the National Championship.

With the top four teams all winning this past week (#1 Georgia, #2 Ohio State, #3 Michigan, #4 TCU), the top remains the same, but with Tennessee losing to South Carolina, it has allowed either LSU or USC to jump to the available spot. After consideration by the College Football Playoff Committee, two loss LSU took the number five spot over one loss USC.

“We talked a lot about it, is what I would say before anything else, and made sure that it wasn’t a single conversation. It came up over and over again to make sure, and there’s reasons for both teams, but the committee at the end of the day saw the (LSU) wins over Alabama and Mississippi as stronger than the (USC) wins over UCLA and Oregon State.”

“One area we still have questions on is the strength of the defense of USC, and looking at it in its entirety, we believe that LSU deserved to be ranked 5 and SC 6.”

CFP Committee Chair Boo Corrigan on ranking LSU ahead of USC

The number five ranking says a lot about LSU’s standing among the committee members as it indicates that if LSU wins out in the next two games against Texas A&M on Saturday and Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, then they will be in the College Football Playoff.

For USC, they would need to win out plus a loss by either LSU or TCU to get in.

#2 Ohio State plays #3 Michigan and the winner will most likely clinch a spot in the playoffs. TCU is also undefeated and would lock their spot as well if they win out.

Along with USC, Clemson would need some help as they are ranked behind two loss Alabama at number eight.

Check out the entire College Football Playoff Rankings for Week 13 below!

1	Georgia	11-0		–
2	Ohio State	11-0		–
3	Michigan	11-0		–
4	TCU	11-0		–
5	LSU	9-2		1
6	USC	10-1		1
7	Alabama	9-2		1
8	Clemson	10-1		1
9	Oregon	9-2		3
10	Tennessee	9-2		5
11	Penn State	9-2		–
12	Kansas State	8-3		3
13	Washington	9-2		4
14	Utah	8-3		4
15	Notre Dame	8-3		3
16	Florida State	8-3		3
17	North Carolina	9-2		4
18	UCLA	8-3		2
19	Tulane	9-2		2
20	Ole Miss	8-3		6
21	Oregon State	8-3		2
22	UCF	8-3		2
23	Texas	7-4		NR
24	Cincinnati	9-2		1
25	Louisville	7-4		NR