College Football Playoff 2019: Rankings and Reaction from Week 12 Poll

No matter which team the College Football Playoff selection committee decided to put at No. 4 in this week's rankings, the second of the season, there was going to be some fans unhappy.

Some believed Alabama, which suffered its first loss of the season to LSU this past Saturday, was still deserving of a spot in the top four. Others thought the Crimson Tide shouldn't be included because of their weak strength of schedule so far.

The latter mindset is the one the committee ended up taking, as Alabama fell two spots to No. 5 and Georgia moved up to the No. 4 spot.

Clemson also entered the top four this week, climbing two spots to No. 3 after it improved to 10-0 with a win over N.C. State.

Heading into Week 12, here's a look at this week's full College Football Playoff rankings, followed by some reaction to the decisions made by the selection committee.

College Football Playoff Top 25

1. LSU (9-0)

2. Ohio State (9-0)

3. Clemson (10-0)

4. Georgia (8-1)

5. Alabama (8-1)

6. Oregon (8-1)

7. Utah (8-1)

8. Minnesota (9-0)

9. Penn State (8-1)

10. Oklahoma (8-1)

11. Florida (8-2)

12. Auburn (7-2)

13. Baylor (9-0)

14. Wisconsin (7-2)

15. Michigan (7-2)

16. Notre Dame (7-2)

17. Cincinnati (8-1)

18. Memphis (8-1)

19. Texas (6-3)

20. Iowa (6-3)

21. Boise State (8-1)

22. Oklahoma State (6-3)

23. Navy (7-1)

24. Kansas State (6-3)

25. Appalachian State (8-1)

College Football Playoff Rankings Reaction

After Ohio State and LSU were ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the initial CFP rankings, both teams improved to 9-0 with victories this past weekend. However, the Tigers moved above the Buckeyes in this week's rankings because of their impressive road victory at Alabama.

It's rare for a team to win as handily as Ohio State did against Maryland yet still drop a spot in the rankings, but that's exactly what happened to the Buckeyes.

As Stadium's Brett McMurphy pointed out, it was a drop that was unprecedented:

But few can complain about the decision to move LSU to the top spot. In addition to the win over Alabama, the Tigers have also defeated Auburn, Florida and Texas this season.

Even though LSU has been impressive, just because it's the No. 1 team in the CFP rankings now doesn't mean its season will end with a national title. There are some other strong top teams in the country, and the path to the championship will still be a challenging one.

In fact, as ESPN pointed out, no team that has been ranked No. 1 in the second edition of the CFP rankings has gone on to win the national title that season.

Alabama may not have any wins over teams that are currently ranked, which didn't change with its loss to LSU, but there are still some who don't think the Crimson Tide should have fallen out of the top four this week.

ESPN's Jay Bilas was confused by the decision to put Georgia, which lost to South Carolina at home earlier in the season, at No. 4, one spot ahead of Alabama:

However, it's quite likely that the final few weeks of the regular season will impact the final Playoff spot, and it's possible that neither Alabama nor Georgia will get into the CFP.

In addition to those two teams, Minnesota, Penn State, Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma and Baylor are all in positions in which it could make a strong Playoff case over the next few weeks. But it all depends on the results of some of the huge remaining games, which will include the conference championship games in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.