CFP Chairman: 'There Was a Lot of Consensus' in Ranking 1-Loss Alabama No. 2

The first set of 2021 College Football Playoff rankings dropped Tuesday evening, with Georgia, Alabama, Michigan State and Oregon consisting of the top four in that order while No. 5 Ohio State and No. 6 Cincinnati sat on the outside looking in.

The CFP committee didn't appear to have much disagreement regarding one-loss Alabama's placement, with chairman Gary Barta telling reporters that "there was a lot of consensus for Alabama to be No. 2."

Alabama is 7-1 thus far, with its lone loss occurring by a 41-38 score at No. 14 Texas A&M.

Georgia was the clear choice at No. 1. The 8-0 Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 303-53, with victories over No. 13 Auburn (34-10) and No. 18 Kentucky (30-13) among them.

The bigger question was at No. 2.

Cincinnati has gone undefeated but has struggled to defeat a pair of unranked teams with losing records in 2-6 Navy and 1-7 Tulane in the past two weeks.

Oklahoma is also undefeated but had issues taking down a 1-7 Kansas team on Oct. 13.

The 8-0 Michigan State Spartans just took down the No. 7 Michigan Wolverines 37-33 for one of the most impressive wins of the year, but MSU also struggled to beat a 2-6 Indiana team and the 3-6 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Alabama has largely looked excellent outside its Texas A&M loss, outscoring its opponents 329-123, with a 42-21 win over No. 16 Ole Miss on its resume.

Ultimately, the initial CFP rankings mean nothing outside of creating talking points for fans considering that there's a month left of regular-season games alongside conference championship games up ahead.

For now, Alabama will look to defend its No. 2 spot as it hosts LSU on Saturday.