When the College Football Playoff committee gathered in recent days to determine the initial rankings of the top teams in the country, the first task was straightforward: confirm undefeated Georgia, which has mauled all comers, as No. 1.
Filling in the rest of the board, especially the three remaining spots in the playoff field, might have been done by firing names out of a confetti cannon. The exercise tested the limits of the eye test, strength of schedule comparisons, statistics and even what seemed like an infallible arbiter: head-to-head competition.
And so it was Tuesday night when the first rankings were announced that following Georgia were one-loss Alabama, unbeaten Michigan State and one-loss Oregon in the top four spots.