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LSU comes in 2nd in initial College Football Playoff rankings

What's it mean? Not much.

Welp, the College Football Playoff committee scored some big #embracedebate points released their first rankings last night, and the Tigers check in at No. 2.

CFB Rankings Week 1

Obviously, the big headline was Alabama making the top four, but I'm not sure why people were really surprised. The narrative builds them in a benefit of the doubt. Always has, and always will when they're good. There's room for debate on the merits of the rankings, but here's the thing.

This is all in LSU's hands. Win on Saturday, Alabama's out of the SEC title race and the playoff discussion. Lose, and Alabama will have one of the biggest marquee wins of anybody in that top 6 and deserve to be back in the discussion. SHOULD it matter that Alabama lost to an Ole Miss team that Florida monkeystomped? Sure. A lot of things should matter that don't when it comes to this. But they don't. All that matters is that LSU takes care of business on Saturday.

Anyways, here's the rest of the rankings.

Playoff committee ranking S&P+ranking Best win, per S&P+ Worst loss, per S&P+ If the season ended today
1 Clemson (8-0) 1 Notre Dame Orange Bowl vs. Alabama
2 LSU (7-0) 6 Florida Cotton Bowl vs. Ohio State
3 Ohio State (8-0) 4 Penn State Cotton Bowl vs. LSU
4 Alabama (7-1) 2 Wisconsin Ole Miss Orange Bowl vs. Clemson
5 Notre Dame (7-1) 9 USC at Clemson Fiesta or Peach
6 Baylor (7-0) 5 West Virginia Sugar Bowl
7 Michigan State (8-0) 23 at Michigan New Year's bowl, potentially Rose*
8 TCU (8-0) 7 West Virginia New Year's bowl
9 Iowa (8-0) 16 at Wisconsin New Year's bowl, potentially Rose*
10 Florida (7-1) 10 Ole Miss at LSU Sugar Bowl
11 Stanford (7-1) 17 at USC at Northwestern Rose Bowl
12 Utah (7-1) 24 Michigan at USC
13 Memphis (8-0) 34 Ole Miss Fiesta or Peach**
14 Oklahoma State (8-0) 35 at West Virginia
15 Oklahoma (7-1) 8 West Virginia Texas
16 Florida State (7-1) 14 Louisville at Georgia Tech
17 Michigan (6-2) 3 BYU at Utah
18 Ole Miss (7-2) 12 at Alabama at Memphis
19 Texas A&M (6-2) 37 Mississippi State at Ole Miss
20 Mississippi State (6-2) 21 Louisiana Tech at Texas A&M
21 Northwestern (6-2) 49 Stanford Iowa
22 Temple (7-1) 39 Penn State Notre Dame
23 UCLA (6-2) 19 BYU Arizona State
24 Toledo (7-0) 20 Arkansas
25 Houston (8-0) 31 at Louisville