When the first College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night, the Georgia Bulldogs were No. 1 and the Alabama Crimson Tide were No. 2.

That’s a bit of a change from the AP Poll, where Bama is No. 1 and Georgia is No. 2.

In the teleconference following the rankings release, CFP chair Kirby Hocutt discussed the passionate debate involving the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide and who should debut at No. 1.

Q: Could you just reiterate again the advantage you see Georgia having at this moment, what you guys saw about Georgia where you put them ahead of Alabama, which is the No. 1 team in the major polls by affirmation? What stands out about Georgia?

A: Yeah, keeping in mind that we rank the teams based upon what has happened up to this point in the season, and again, it was passionate debate when we were discussing Georgia and Alabama over the course of the past two days. Some of the most passionate discussion that I’ve seen the Selection Committee have in my two-plus years being a part of this committee. Now, what gave Georgia a very slight edge over Alabama this week in the eyes of the Selection Committee were really the two top-25 wins that Georgia has over Mississippi State but specifically over No. 3, Notre Dame. So it was those two victories that really gave Georgia the ever-slight edge over Alabama this week.

Obviously, Georgia will have its work cut out for it to maintain its No. 1 ranking, with games against South Carolina and Auburn coming up the next two weeks.

With only four weeks remaining in the regular season, the next month of action is sure to be a lot of fun as the rankings play themselves out.