LSU fends off USC and moves to No. 5 in College Football Playoff rankings

LSU continued its climb up the CFP Rankings on Tuesday with the Tigers moving up another spot to No. 5 in this week’s edition of the poll that ultimately determines the four teams who advance to the CFP Playoffs.

LSU (9-2 overall, 6-1 SEC) won its fifth straight game last week, defeating UAB, 41-10, in Tiger Stadium. The Tigers, who have already clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game against Georgia, wraps up its regular season on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Texas A&M (4-7, 1-6 SEC).

This week marked the fourth edition of the CFP Rankings and LSU has climbed in the poll each week after debuting at No. 10 on Nov. 1. LSU moved up three spots to No. 7 following its win over Alabama and then slide one spot to No. 6 last week after the victory over Arkansas.

LSU and Southern Cal are the only teams in the CFP Rankings that have improved its standing in the poll each week. LSU has gone from No. 10 to 7 to 6 to 5, while USC has gone from No. 9 to 8, to 7 to 6.

The No. 5 CFP Ranking is the highest for LSU since the 2019 national championship season when the Tigers debuted at No. 2 that year and climbed to No. 1 the following week.

In the latest CFP Rankings, Georgia (11-0) remains No. 1, followed by Ohio State (11-0), Michigan (11-0), TCU (11-0, and LSU (9-2). Southern Cal (10-1) is No.6, followed by Alabama (9-2), Clemson (10-1), Oregon (9-2), and Tennessee (9-2).

Ole Miss (8-3) is the only other team in the CFP Top 25 as the Rebels are ranked No. 20. Florida State (8-3), LSU’s season-opening opponent, is ranked No. 16, while Tulane (9-2) stands at No. 19.

On LSU behind ranked ahead of one-loss Southern Cal, CFP Committee Chair Boo Corrigan said, “we talked a lot about it, is what I would say before anything else, and made sure that it wasn’t a single conversation. It came up over and over again to make sure, and there’s reasons for both teams, but the committee at the end of the day saw the (LSU) wins over Alabama and Mississippi as stronger than the (USC) wins over UCLA and Oregon State.

“One area we still have questions on is the strength of the defense of USC, and looking at it in its entirety, we believe that LSU deserved to be ranked 5 and SC 6.”

Four of USC’s last five opponents have scored 35 points or more, while LSU has allowed only 30 or more points just three times this season.