Ole Miss lost a coach but moved up in the college football rankings released Tuesday, rising to sixth place despite Lane Kiffin's abrupt departure to LSU.
Undefeated Ohio State and Indiana remained at Nos. 1 and 2 in the rankings, while Georgia moved up to No. 3 and Texas Tech moved up to No. 4. The rest of the top 12 are Oregon, Mississippi, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU and Miami.
The final rankings will be released Sunday, a day after the conference title games determine the five automatic qualifiers for the 12-team bracket.
The playoffs begin Dec. 19 and conclude a month later with the title game outside Miami.
Just as news as the selection committee's decision not to dock Mississippi due to the loss of its coach (which it has leeway to do) was the flip between Alabama and Notre Dame, with the Tide moving up to No. 9 and the Irish falling to No. 10.
Both teams won last week to improve to 10-2, and Alabama now has a better chance of making the 12-team bracket even with Saturday's loss to Georgia, which will be the Tide's third this season in the SEC title game.
Notre Dame now finds itself in a precarious position on the bubble, despite a 10-game winning streak.
The Irish can't afford too many upsets in the title games, namely BYU's win over Texas Tech in the Big 12.
In another move that could have a huge impact, the committee ranked James Madison of the Sun Belt Conference at No. 25 — higher than unranked Duke, which plays No. 17 Virginia for the Atlantic Coast Conference title.
If Duke and James Madison win, James Madison could deny the ACC the automatic bid. They are a top-five conference team. American appears to be holding one of them, with No. 20 Tulane and No. 24 North Texas slated for that title game on Friday.
