The College Football Playoff Committee put Ohio State fifth in its penultimate rankings of the season.
The Buckeyes moved up one spot from the previous week after beating unranked Michigan 42-28, but they remain on the outside looking in with one week left in the season. The top four teams will play in the first College Football Playoff.
Alabama was again nation's No. 1 team while Oregon remained second. TCU was third after being fifth a week earlier, and Florida State came in fourth after being third the week before.
The Crimson Tide, Ducks, Seminoles and Buckeyes all play conference championship games against ranked opponents this weekend while the Horned Frogs host a regular season game against 2-9 Iowa State.
CFP committee chairman Jeff Long noted in a release published along with the rankings the committee begins with a blank slate every week rather than moving teams up and down, and he told ESPN after the rankings were revealed the committee has yet to take into consideration the ankle injury that knocked Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett out for the rest of the season.
"Ohio State's situation has not been impacted at this point due to J.T. Barrett's injury," Long said. "We will evaluate his injury and his replacement in this championship game, so the No. 5 ranking of Ohio State is not impacted by the injury at this point. It will be evaluated in this last championship game."
With the committee vowing to start over every week, several variables remain in play between now and the release of the final rankings on Sunday. Chief among them is who wins and loses this weekend, but also what is at stake in games. The committee has been told to weigh conference titles, but Long said how to consider potential shared championships has not been discussed yet.
Also a big topic of discussion is TCU's ranking compared to No. 6 Baylor because the Bears beat the Horned Frogs 61-58 on Oct. 11.
"We believe TCU is a better football team at this point in time," Long explained, also noting the committee's belief the Horned Frogs had a stronger collection of wins overall.
Follow on Twitter @marcushartman
