For all of the talk about the 12-team College Football Playoff being a borderline SEC-Big Ten invitational, consider that one-loss Boise State is now in the same club as Oregon, Texas and Miami -- in position to earn a first-round bye as one of the four highest-ranked conference champions.
This 13-member CFP selection committee has placed a premium on who teams lost to as well as who they beat, and Boise State's narrow loss to No. 1 Oregon looks far better than BYU's recent upset defeat to six-loss Kansas.
What does that mean for the Big 12? And is there anything Georgia can do to move up if a win against Tennessee didn't do it?
Here are three lessons learned from the third ranking, followed by a look at eight more teams who could play their way in and how the Group of 5 race stacks up.
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What we learned
Last two in | First four out
Next four out | Group of 5