College football has just finished its 10th week of the season. This means that the bowl season is slowly approaching, and that it’s time to start thinking about the College Football Playoff. Tuesday night the first official CFP rankings were released, leaving college football fans with something to debate about.
1. Alabama (8-0)
Alabama coming in at number one was not much of a shocker. Everyone already knows how good Alabama is, and they’ve done nothing but dominate this year. ‘Bama has no doubt played a pretty easy schedule up to this point, but the numbers they are putting up are insane. The Crimson Tide have won all of their games by double digits. The lowest amount of points they’ve scored was 39 against Missouri, and the most they have given up was 31 against Arkansas. Alabama’s most challenging game of the season came on Saturday on the road against #3 LSU, and they handled the Tigers with ease, winning 29-0. 
Prep senior Jake Trocki is a big Alabama fan, and he has very high hopes for them. “I think ‘Bama deserves to be number one,” he said. “They’ve showed time in and time out over the years why they are the best team in college right now. I’m looking forward to watching them in the championship this season. Roll Tide!” 
2. Clemson (8-0)
Clemson is one of the four undefeated teams left in college football, so them being ranked this high is understandable. Some fans might argue that they haven’t played an incredibly strong schedule this season, and those critics do have a point.
Clemson’s strongest wins this season have come against #25 Texas A&M (won by 2) and #22 Syracuse (won by 4). They have faced a more difficult schedule than Alabama has, but their wins have not been as convincing. Arguably their best performance of the season came at home against N.C. State (41-7). The Tigers have probably been given a benefit because of how consistently good they have been in the past years. As of now it looks like Clemson should win the rest of their regular season games unless a major upset were to happen. Clemson’s toughest game they have left is most likely their Week 11 road matchup against #24 Boston College.
3. LSU (7-1)
LSU coming in at #3 above Notre Dame was a bit of a shocker to most of the college football world. It was a bold decision by the playoff committee to put a one loss team above an undefeated team. A big reason for this is because LSU has a huge win against Georgia (36-16 ) who was #2 in the country at the time. Another reason is the committee believes that their one loss to Florida wasn’t a significant loss. However, LSU’s loss against Alabama will surely drop them down in the rankings.
Prior to Saturday’s loss, senior Tyler Vandemerwe said, “I believe LSU should probably be ranked at 4 considering they have a loss and Notre Dame doesn’t.”
4. Notre Dame (8-0)
Notre Dame hasn’t lost a game this season, so they definitely deserve to be in the top four. Their biggest win came in the first game of the season against Michigan. Michigan is up to number #5 now, but they were #14 when Notre Dame beat them. A big reason the committee put Notre Dame at 4 instead of 3 probably has a lot to do with their poor performances against Pitt and Ball State.
Prep senior Craig Palotas has been a big Notre Dame fan his whole life and said, “It doesn’t make much sense to put a one loss LSU team ahead of an undefeated Notre Dame team. Notre Dame is the only
undefeated team with a top 5 win and they deserve to be ranked accordingly.”