CFP rankings: Washington gains, Utah fades as Pac-12 places four teams in the committee’s top-25

The Pac-12 lost a team in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday but gained a spot near the top.

Undefeated Washington moved up to No. 4 after its narrow victory at Oregon State. The Huskies replaced Florida State, which slipped one position to fifth.

Oregon held its ground as No. 6 — the highest ranked one-loss team.

In the bottom half of the rankings, Arizona was slotted 15th, followed by No. 16 Oregon State. Meanwhile, Utah dropped from the top-25 after its defeat in Tucson.

Interestingly, Oregon State slipped five positions after a two-point loss to an undefeated team (Washington). In contrast, Tennessee has lost its past two games by multiple touchdowns and dropped just eight spots in that span.

“I’m trying to figure (that) out,” ESPN analyst Greg McElroy said during a discussion about the Beavers.

The hottest topic of the penultimate week of the season was Washington’s position relative to Florida State.

The Huskies had trailed FSU (also unbeaten) for weeks but finally jumped the Seminoles. UW has more wins over top-25 teams and owns the No. 1 strength-of-record in the country.

(SOR is a measure of a team’s performance against its schedule compared to how an average top-25 team would fare against the same opponents.)

The season-ending injury to FSU quarterback Jordan Travis was not a factor in the decisions, said selection committee chair Boo Corrigan.

“As we look at Washington over the course of the season and looked at Florida State,” Corrigan said on ESPN, “we decided to put Washington ahead.”

On a media teleconference after the ESPN selection show, Corrigan was asked why the Huskies weren’t ranked higher than No. 3 Michigan. After all, they have more quality wins than the Wolverines.

Corrigan noted UW’s mediocre midseason performances.

“In looking at Washington,” he said, “there were a couple of weeks with Arizona State and the Stanford game where we wanted to see a little bit more from Washington.”