First College Football Playoff rankings predictions

November's fare - think Virginia Tech-Miami, Notre Dame-Miami, Georgia-Auburn, Auburn-Alabama, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, TCU-Oklahoma, Michigan-Wisconsin and Ohio State-Michigan - and Championship Saturday on December 2 will tell all.

Three polls released Sunday agreed: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Wisconsin are this season's premier college football teams to date. If ESPN analysts Mel Kiper and Todd McShay are correct, there's going to be a lot of happy Notre Dame fans.

Currently, there are four Power 5 teams that remain undefeated.

With a 7-1 record and six straight wins by at least 20 points (three of them against now ranked foes), Notre Dame was elevated to No. 5 in this week's Associated Press poll. Both teams have been dominant enough. The Big 12 and the Pacific-12 have run out of unbeaten teams. Tomorrow night brings us our first out of six official Playoff Selection rankings based on strength-of-schedule, conference championships, team records, and head-to-head results. But if the Spartans were to finish the season by beating Penn State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin (and winning the Big Ten in the process), they would surely get a long look despite their two losses.

In 2015, Notre Dame was ranked No. 4 in the first part of November, but while muddling through 28-7 and 19-16 victories versus Wake Forest and Boston College, respectively, the Irish dropped to No. 6 at 10-1 by the time it played Stanford in the season finale (where it lost 36-35 when the Cardinal converted a field goal on the game's final play).

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is scheduled to be on tonight's show, but he joked it's because the likes of Alabama's Nick Saban, Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Penn State's James Franklin, among others, bypassed the opportunity. Their loss came against No. 2 Georgia by 1-point. The Bulldogs also have a win over No. 21 Mississippi State. 2 Penn State, 39-38, thanks to heroics from QB J.T. Barrett. In Ohio State's favor, Oklahoma is ranked inside the Top 10. The Buckeyes had the most marquee win of Week 9, rallying to beat then-No.

And, one can nearly hear Saban exclaim, ere he drives them all to fright - Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night!

But, I don't think it will hurt the Tigers to be ranked outside of the top-5. Meanwhile Alabama has zero wins in this category, with its top resume-building victory coming against a mediocre Texas A&M squad that has fallen out of the rankings after suffering its third loss of the season. The Sooners went into Columbus and blasted the Buckeyes. He has made multiple receptions in each game this season, including a five-catch, 100-yard, one-score day against Purdue. In the everlasting search for logic around college football, Georgia's rise flatters Notre Dame's surge, and Notre Dame's surge flatters Georgia's rise.