The final College Football Playoff Rankings of 2017 were released shortly after the CFP Selection Show, giving fans a better idea of where the CFP Selection Committee believes conference teams with similar records stand as we enter bowl season.

The biggest immediate takeaways? No. 5 Ohio State wound up with clear victories over two top 10 teams (No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 9 Penn State), while No. 4 Alabama's best win this season came against No. 17 LSU. Also, as the golden ticket winner, No. 12 UCF becomes the highest-rated team from a Group of Five program in the final CFP Rankings to date.

Let's take a look at how those rankings shook out on Sunday afternoon.

  1. Clemson (12-1)
  2. Oklahoma (12-1)
  3. Georgia (12-1)
  4. Alabama (11-1)
  5. Ohio State (11-2)
  6. Wisconsin (12-1)
  7. Auburn (10-3)
  8. USC (11-2)
  9. Penn State (10-2)
  10. Miami (10-2)
  11. Washington (10-2)
  12. UCF (12-0)
  13. Stanford (9-4)
  14. Notre Dame (9-3)
  15. TCU (10-3)
  16. Michigan State (9-3)
  17. LSU (9-3)
  18. Washington State (9-3)
  19. Oklahoma State (9-3)
  20. Memphis (10-2)
  21. Northwestern (9-3)
  22. Virginia Tech (9-3)
  23. Mississippi State (8-4)
  24. NC State (8-4)
  25. Boise State (10-3)

There were not too many surprises in the final top 25, but there were a couple.

Wisconsin finishing ahead of Auburn stood out, and it had a huge impact on the bowl matchups in the ACC and Big Ten.  Last week, Auburn was positioned at No. 2, while the Badgers were fourth.  After both teams lost their championship games, the Tigers fell below Wisconsin, despite losing to a better opponent.  I have to believe the drop was due to Wisconsin being more competitive in its loss to Ohio State than Auburn was in the Tigers loss to Georgia.

TCU took a beating from the committee for getting hammered by Oklahoma again.  It dropped all the way down to 15th, opening the door for Washington to get the final spot in the New Year's Six.  Dropping the Frogs out of the New Year's Six was reasonable, but that far of a drop seemed a bit harsh.  Again, it appears that margin of victory mattered.