College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Warde Manuel had to know that a lot of eyes were on teams like Alabama and Ole Miss to see how the committee treated those high-profile teams that now are saddled with 3 losses after a cruel Week 13.

But what about 10-1 teams like Indiana and SMU, who’ve both had dream seasons and are trying to nail down unexpected spots in the inaugural 12-team Playoff? During the media teleconference that followed Tuesday night’s 4th edition of the Playoff rankings, Manuel was asked about SMU and Indiana, which suffered its first loss of the season last Saturday at Ohio State but is still firmly in the Playoff mix.

The committee put SMU at No. 9 in the latest rankings, moving the Mustangs up 4 spots from last week, while Indiana slid down 5 spots to No. 10 after that loss in Columbus. So, how did Manuel and his committee separate SMU and Indiana on Tuesday night?

“Yeah, like I said on the ESPN interview, Indiana played well at times against Ohio State, and obviously Ohio State pulled away in the second half. We felt also SMU has been playing really dominant football as of late, with the way they played against Virginia at Virginia, they’ve had some great wins, (and) only one loss. Kevin Jennings is one of the dynamic quarterbacks in the country at the present time,” explained Manuel. “So, we just felt that SMU and their play on the field, they moved ahead of Indiana this week, and we’ll continue to monitor it as we move forward.”

A follow-up question was then asked to make Manuel further explain why SMU was placed ahead of Indiana.

“Well, at this time, I would just say the strength of schedule for Indiana improved greatly when they played Ohio State, but SMU just has been consistent in the last few weeks in terms of their performance and the committee as we looked at it ranked SMU ahead of Indiana,” said Manuel.

Now, we get 1 more week of the regular season to further shake things up and create chaos before December hits.