First College Football Playoff rankings have Michigan football at No. 21

The Michigan Wolverines are the No. 21 team in the country in the first official College Football Rankings released on Tuesday night, the committee revealed on ESPN.

Michigan currently sits at 7-2 (5-1 Big Ten) on the season and is riding a three-game win streak with victories over Washington, at Michigan State and Purdue.

The Wolverines are one of seven Big Ten teams listed in the initial rankings, headlined by Ohio State (No. 1), Indiana (No. 2), Oregon (No. 9), USC (No. 19), Iowa (No. 20), Michigan (No. 21) and Washington (No. 23). U-M has lost to two teams in the rankings in Oklahoma (No. 12) and USC and beaten Washington. It plays OSU to end the regular season.

From here through Selection Sunday on Dec. 7, the committee will update the rankings each week Tuesday night. Michigan has a chance to stay in the fight over the last month of the season with a bye this weekend, followed by road games at Northwestern (Wrigley Field) and Maryland. Should it get to 9-2, it has a chance to punch a ticket, or at least make its case, with a win over Ohio State on Nov. 29.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore addressed the plans for the team over the bye as it looks to round into form.

“Really looking to get guys back, trying to do as much as we can to get everybody’s bodies back because physical games, these past games, physical in all phases, execution maybe not exactly where we needed to be in every phase, but I know the physicality [has been high],” Moore said on his Monday night radio show. “.. We want to do everything we can to get those guys back, but still give guys the opportunity to get better at football. So there’s a fair amount of how we do that. We’ll have practice today, but more of a walkthrough, really get the guys back and correct some things.”

Michigan knows that it has to handle its business on the field in order to be considered for the College Football Playoff, and Moore says he is focused on what they can do to make it happen as opposed to the outside noise.

“I think the one thing we have to do is just control what we control,” Moore said. “Right now, whether you’re in it or out, and I think we’ll be in it, it won’t really matter where you’re at if you don’t win. So the job that we have now is to just, when we’re looking at the position where we’re at now compared to last year, we’re in a position to control our destiny of being in the playoff. And what we have to do now is just go win. And if we go win, we’ll be in good shape.”

Here is how the committee ranked the teams heading into the Week 11 slate of games.

Where Michigan sits in the first College Football Playoff rankings

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Ole Mis
7. BYU
8. Texas Tech
9. Oregon
10. Notre Dame
11. Texas
12. Oklahoma
13. Utah
14. Virginia
15. Louisville
16. Vanderbilt
17. Georgia Tech
18. Miami (FL)
19. USC
20. Iowa
21. Michigan
22. Missouri
23. Washington
24. Pittsburgh
25. Tennessee

The College Football Playoff is a 12-team field for the second season in a row, but with a format change. Instead of autobyes for the four highest-ranked conference champions, the committee will give guys to the four best teams regardless of championship weekend. Seeds 5-12 will play games on campus sites on Dec. 19-20. The quarterfinals will be held at the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl, while the semifinals at the Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. The national championship game is set for Jan. 19, 2026 from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.

The five highest-ranked conference champions will still make the field, but the teams will be seeded 1 through 12 accordingly with no re-seeding.