Inaugural College Football Playoff Poll Ranks UCLA 22nd

Oct 28, 2014; Grapevine, TX, USA; Selection committee chair Jeff Long speaks to the media after unveiling the top 25 teams in the initial college football playoff rankings at the Gaylord Texan Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The much anticipated first set of Top-25 rankings from the College Football Playoff Committee were unveiled Tuesday night, slotting UCLA in at number 22 and putting three SEC West teams, including #1 Mississippi State, in the top four of the rankings.

At first glance, the rankings seem to be quite fair and properly consider factors like head-to-head results and strength of schedule. UCLA especially seems to have been given a fair shake, as it was properly ranked in the top-25 thanks to its six wins to date against a very tough schedule, but not ranked as highly as other two-loss teams because of the unconvincing nature of its performances throughout the season. Of course, the Bruins controls a large portion of their own destiny with a finishing stretch of Arizona, at Washington, USC, and Stanford still to come.

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On a national level, although the initial set of rankings seem SEC heavy with four of the top six teams coming from the brutal SEC West, those teams are likely to cannibalize themselves in the coming month with the majority of the SEC West’s intra-division matchups still to play out.

As long as they take care of their remaining schedules in the manner expected, top-10 teams like Oregon, TCU, and Notre Dame have to feel good about their chances of ending up in the CFB Playoff after the SEC shakedown concludes.