NCAA Football Rankings 2014: Week 13 Standings and Analysis for Latest Polls

And then there was one. 

No. 1 Mississippi State's loss to No. 4 Alabama in Tuscaloosa means that Florida State remains the only power-five conference school with an unblemished record. It also means it is about the only team with a guaranteed ticket to make it into the inaugural College Football Playoff.

The rest of college football's top teams have now put their fate in the hands of the playoff committee. With each team losing at least one game, it's not going to be an easy task for them to sort through the wreckage and choose the other three most deserving teams. 

Fans will still have to wait until Tuesday to see the latest batch of CFP rankings, but the newest Associated Press and Bleacher Report polls have already been released. Here's how those rankings see the teams stacking up: 

Week 12 Winners

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Looking at the polls, there were a few teams who definitely picked up crucial wins in Week 12. The most obvious would of course be the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tide welcomed Mississippi State to Bryant-Denny Stadium and controlled most of the game with typical Alabama defense. 

The win was yet another over an AP No. 1 team for Nick Saban. No coach has been better at toppling top teams than the Alabama boss, per ESPN Stats & Info:

The win puts Alabama in the driver's seat for a berth in the playoff. Sitting atop the SEC West, all that stands between the Tide and a berth are games against Western Carolina, Auburn and the SEC Championship Game. 

Another big winner from Saturday was Florida State. The Seminoles managed to survive and advance yet another week with a 30-26 victory over rival Miami. If the 'Noles were under the same scrutiny as one-loss teams around the country, this wouldn't have been a good win. 

After all, they had to prove their ability to come from behind once again this season. They came back from a 23-7 deficit in the second quarter to remain flawless. They're knack for coming back this year is putting them in rarefied air, as noted by ESPN Stats & Info:

However, as ugly as Florida State's wins have been this season, the fact remains it has made it through its schedule unscathed. It's a point that head coach Jimbo Fisher emphasized after the game, per Christy Cabrera Chirinos of the Sun-Sentinel: “Talk about our guys, just amazing. What a special group of guys. Everybody talks about this team, it doesn’t do this, it doesn’t do that. Well measure them for 60 minutes. When you measure this team up for 60 minutes, it measures up pretty dadgum good.”

With just Boston College and Florida left on the regular-season slate, it's looking like the ACC Championship Game might be the only remaining challenge left for them to hurdle. 

Week 12 Losers

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Regardless of how college football decides who plays in its championship game, there's always going to be a recency bias. A loss in September will always be more forgivable than a loss in November. That's what makes losing (or not winning as well as expected) difficult this time of year. 

No team is likely to find that out as clearly as Mississippi State. The Bulldogs went from being a shoo-in for the CFP to yet another one-loss team who must hope that the committee sees it fit to include them over their one-loss brethren. 

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, it wasn't just their own loss that hurt. As Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports pointed out, none of the high-caliber teams that they beat did them any favors:

Even with those losses, the Bulldogs still have one of the best resumes in the country. The question now becomes how the committee would feel about putting a team that isn't a conference champion into the playoff. With Alabama in control, it appears that Mississippi State's shot at the SEC crown is gone. 

Perhaps one of the teams that lost the most with a win was TCU. As one of the six power-five conference schools with just one loss on the season, the Horned Frogs have now entered the part of the season in which they are expected to dominate against inferior competition. 

Trailing 3-6 Kansas 20-10 in the third quarter would not be considered domination. As Kirk Herbstreit noted, failing to put away the Jayhawks early in Lawrence could create some perception problems for TCU: 

Of course, finding a way to pull out the victory is better than, say, losing by 14 at home against Virginia Tech. Still, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Ohio State jump TCU or Mississippi State remain above the Frogs despite their loss to Alabama. 

Shifting to the West Coast, the Pac-12 found itself short one playoff contender when all was said and done Saturday. The No. 6 Arizona State Sun Devils were stunned by the Oregon State Beavers, despite the Beavers entering the game on a four-game losing streak. 

The Devils had set themselves up nicely for a playoff campaign after back-to-back wins over ranked teams in Utah and Notre Dame. Now, they must hope to emerge from a jumbled mass of two-loss teams in the Pac-12 South that includes USC (whom they hold a win over), UCLA (whom they lost to) and Arizona (remains to be seen). 

That's one less team the committee will have to figure out what to do with come Dec. 6.