Georgia, Alabama rank 1-2 in first playoff standings

The Southeastern Conference produced the top two teams Tuesday night in the first college football playoff rankings of the 2017 season, with Georgia being pegged No. 1 by the 13-member selection committee and Alabama No. 2.

It's the first time in the short history of the college football playoff that the same league produced the top two teams.

Georgia and Alabama are each 8-0 overall and 5-0 in conference play, with the Bulldogs winning their five league contests by an average score of 42-10 and the Crimson Tide by 48-8. Georgia won 20-19 at No. 24 Notre Dame on Sept. 9, while Alabama opened Sept. 2 with a 24-7 dumping of No. 3 Florida State in Atlanta, but those two nonconference foes have been heading in opposite directions since.

Notre Dame is now 7-1 and No. 3 in the playoff rankings, while FSU is 2-5 and in danger of missing out on a bowl game for the first time since 1976.

"At the end of the day, it was the two wins against CFP Top 25 teams (Mississippi State and Notre Dame) for Georgia, especially the win over Notre Dame," playoff committee chair Kirby Hocutt said Tuesday night on ESPN. "That gave Georgia the very slight edge over Alabama this week."

Defending national champion Clemson got the fourth spot in the inaugural rankings, with the Tigers followed by Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State, TCU, Wisconsin and Miami. The SEC had five teams in the top 25, with Georgia and Alabama joined by Auburn at No. 14, Mississippi State at No. 16 and LSU at No. 18.

The SEC had the top three teams in the former BCS standings in November 2011 with LSU, Alabama and Arkansas, and the league held three of the top four spots in the very first playoff rankings in October 2014, when Mississippi State was at No. 1, Auburn at No. 3 and Ole Miss No. 4. Alabama was No. 6 in the inaugural rankings three years ago but ascended to No. 1 before losing to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl national semifinal.

Georgia has sharply improved in Kirby Smart's second season in Athens, with his debut year yielding an 8-5 record and a trip to the Liberty Bowl. The meteoric rise is similar to what Alabama experienced during Nick Saban's second season in 2008, but Smart insists there was never a timetable for success.

"They don't have a book on it that says by this time you have to be here and by this time you have to be here," Smart said Monday. "It's not really done that way. It's done each year independent of the previous year. This year is independent of last year, just like next year will be independent of this year. You try to reshape your team based on the personality it takes on.

"We are worried about this year, and we are worried about South Carolina right now. That's all I'm thinking about."

Georgia's players are confident they will handle the lofty status in the same manner Alabama has the last several seasons, but the Bulldogs do admit this is a very different world. This time last year, Georgia was 4-4 with a home loss to Vanderbilt and a third consecutive drubbing at the hands of Florida.

The Bulldogs defeated Vanderbilt and Florida this year by a combined 87-21.

"Last year was a tough year, but we learned from all the trials," Georgia senior outside linebacker Davin Bellamy said Monday. "We've kind of been through the fire, and we're here at 8-0, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Georgia is the first SEC East team to earn a top-four spot in the playoff rankings. Every SEC West team except Arkansas has appeared among the top four.

Monday night's release was the 20th overall installment of the playoff standings, with Alabama having been ranked among the top four teams 17 consecutive times. The Crimson Tide won the four-team playoff over Clemson after the 2015 season and were the runners-up last season.

Saban didn't make much of the playoff rankings three years ago, and that has remained the case this week.

"I could care less about the poll," Saban said Monday. "What significance does a poll have right now? I'm focusing on the next four games and could care less about the poll. You won't see me wasting any time watching TV or watching to see who's No. 1 or who's No. 2.

"These are the things we categorize as poison that you really don't want your players to be focusing on or thinking about."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.