With very few upsets this past week in college football, most expected that the top of the new College Football Playoff rankings would remain the same.
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Well, those rankings didn't.
After there was some controversy last week with Clemson ranking in ahead of Miami, those two teams have now switched spots after neither team really did anything in Week 12 of the season to justify that change. Miami struggled for three quarters against a mediocre Virginia team at home before finally pulling away, while Clemson beat up on FCS Citadel.
College Football Playoff committee chairman Kirby Hocutt was on ESPN after the rankings release, where he explained the decision by the committee.
"The selection committee continues to be impressed with Miami as they continue to build their undefeated record, and they have the ever slight margin ahead of No. 3 Clemson this week. So not a lot of separation, but they did just enough this week following two impressive games to earn that No. 2 spot over Clemson."
CFP Selection Committee chair Kirby Hocutt: "Very narrow separation between teams (ranked) No. 1 and No. 5"
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 22, 2017
Hocutt stressed the "not a lot of separation" line during his entire interview, so it sounds like the committee had the two teams very close last week, and made the judgement call to make Clemson the No. 2 team. Faced with the same call this week, it looks like they have now chosen Miami to take over that spot.
The full College Football Playoff rankings for this week can be seen here.
