Alabama’s consistent dominance in games they should win pushed the Tide to number one this week, as everyone saw Clemson struggle with a mediocre North Carolina squad on the road. The fans and sportswriters are in lockstep with the top five, though for my money you’d have a hard time selling Clemson as one of the four best teams if the playoff started tomorrow, and unless they show improvement I suspect the committee will agree when the first rankings come out in about a month.
The main variation comes near the bottom of the poll, where fans eschewed the AP #22 Wake Forest and #24 SMU in favor of Cal and Southern Cal.