College Football Playoff rankings: Wisconsin clocks in at No. 21

On Tuesday night, the initial College Football Playoff rankings were released and, per tradition, there is a lot to shout about. Before we get into that, here are the top four teams in the rankings:

1) Georgia Bulldogs
2) Alabama Crimson Tide
3) Michigan State Spartans
4) Oregon Ducks

And here is the rest of the top-10 in case you can’t read the embedded tweet above: Ohio State, Cincinnati, Michigan, Oklahoma, Wake Forest, Notre Dame.

In what I (many? most?) would consider a surprise, the Badgers, who are not ranked in either of the major polls, clocked in at No. 21 in the initial CFP rankings. Minnesota is No. 20 and Iowa is No. 22, so there is a heavy Big Ten West flavor to the bottom of the rankings. Penn State is, hilariously, not ranked at all.

The Badgers are 5-3 overall on the season and 3-2 in the Big Ten with wins over a ranked Purdue and ranked Iowa and losses to ranked (at the time) Penn State, Michigan and Notre Dame. I’ll be honest...that doesn’t scream “top-25 resume” to me, but what do I know? I’m just some guy.