Miami Hurricanes get slight bump in College Football Playoff rankings

Miami’s move up to No. 12 was one of the few meaningful changes Tuesday, as a sleepy week filled with nonconference blowouts locked the College Football Playoff rankings into a near standstill.The Hurricanes, who won by 17 at Virginia Tech , switched spots with Utah after the Utes gave up 472 yards rushing in a tight win over Kansas State.“Miami is a team that really appears they’re trying to look like the Miami team that started 5-0,” said Hunter Yurachek, the chair of the selection committee.There are two more rankings to be revealed, ending on Dec. 7 when the rankings will set the bracket for the 12-team playoff to start Dec. 19.After some confusion last week about the weight given to Miami’s opening-week win over Notre Dame, Yurachek said the teams were close enough in the rankings this week to be compared head-to-head. But still, that victory was not enough to push the Hurricanes past Notre Dame.“We compare a number of things when looking at teams closely ranked together,” Yurachek said. “We’ve got some teams ranked between Miami and Notre Dame, such as Alabama and BYU, who we’re also comparing Miami to.”Pitt’s return to the rankings — at No. 22 — after falling out for a week impacts the meaning of its key Atlantic Coast Conference game against the Hurricanes, who need a win and some help to make the conference title game but still have hopes of making the playoff bracket as an at-large.The rankings placed the spotlight on, where else this year, “6-7″ — flip-flopping Oregon and Ole Miss in those spots while keeping their top five teams the same in Tuesday night’s reveal.Oregon’s impressive victory over Southern California in one of last week’s few games between ranked teams accounted for the biggest change, moving the Ducks ahead of Mississippi, which didn’t play.Ohio State was ranked first again. Following the Buckeyes for the fourth time in four rankings were fellow undefeated teams Indiana and Texas A&M. Georgia stayed at No. 4, followed by Texas Tech. After Oregon and Mississippi came Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama and BYU.Ohio State and Indiana will play in what should be a 1 vs. 2 Big Ten title game if both win rivalry games on the road over Thanksgiving weekend. Ohio State’s task is more difficult — against Michigan, which moved up three spots to No. 15. Indiana plays Purdue.No. 10 Alabama plays at Auburn with a spot in the Southeastern Conference title game on the line. The Tide’s opponent would be Texas A&M if the Aggies win at No. 16 Texas.Among the factors the committee can consider is the availability of players and coaches, which threatens to bring Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin’s job status into play.Word from Oxford is that a decision will come on Kiffin’s potential moves to LSU or Florida after this week’s game against Mississippi State. An Ole Miss team without one of the most sought-after coaches in the game wouldn’t seem as good as one with him.Still, Yurachek wouldn’t tip his hand on how that evaluation might go.“We’ll take care of that when it happens,” Yurachek said. “We don’t look ahead. The loss of player, loss of a key coach is in the principles of how we rank teams, but we don’t have a data point for how we look at Ole Miss without their coach.”After Oregon’s 42-27 win over USC, coach Dan Lanning said his team deserves credit for the schedule it plays — which included a tough conference game during a week in which many in the SEC were going against non-ranked, double-digit underdogs.The committee agreed.“We’ve been waiting for them to have that signature win to really put them where they need to be,” Yurachek said. By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer The four highest-ranked teams determined by the selection committee will be seeded Nos. 1-4 and receive a first round bye. Seeds 5-12 will play each other in the first round.

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