No. 5

The first NCAA Selection Committee rankings came out yesterday and there were few surprises. The 7-1 Georgia Bulldogs were No. 5 in the latest AP poll and are also No. 5 in the NCAA's rankings. In fact, the top five teams are the same and in the same order in both polls, and the next five are the same teams but in slightly different order - the AP's 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 teams are number 9, 6, 7, 8, and 10 in the NCAA rankings. 

Twelve teams will make the playoffs but the rankings don't always match the seedings in the playoffs, as the five highest-ranked conference champions get in automatically, even if they are ranked behind teams in the top 25 or not ranked at all. Specifically, unranked Memphis (8-1) is the fifth highest-ranked conference champion and would get the No. 12 seed despite not ranking in the top 25. 

Even more importantly, at least to Georgia fans, since the top four teams get a first-round bye, the No. 5-ranked Bulldogs would play the 12-seed Tigers in the first round of the playoffs, provided, of course, that the season ends with the rankings as they stand now. The winner of that game would play Alabama, and the winner of that game would advance to the semifinal game and most likely play Ohio State. The semifinal winner would play in the National Championship game against whoever emerges from Indiana-ATM-Ole Miss-BYU-Norte Dame-Vanderbilt (even I'm not doing to try and pick a winner out of that field, I just hope it's not Notre Dame).

Louisville (7-1), the current holder of the lineal championship belt and Georgia's two championship rings, is ranked No. 15 by the Selection Committee (14 by the AP). They would have to advance to at least No. 11 in the rankings to bring the belt and the rings to the playoffs. 

But anyway, everything will change next week after Saturday's games and we'll have to go through all this analysis again.