NEW YORK — Clemson, LSU, Ohio State and Alabama are the top four teams in the first College Football Playoff selection committee rankings of the season.

Notre Dame was fifth and Baylor was sixth on Tuesday night.

Clemson, LSU and Ohio State are among 11 unbeaten teams in FBS, nearly quadruple the number there was last season when the committee started ranking teams. Alabama and Notre Dame each have one loss.

Memphis was the highest ranked team from a Group of Five conference at No. 13.

Last year the top four teams in the first playoff rankings were Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn and Mississippi. Only the Seminoles reached the playoff. Ohio State, the eventual national champion, was 16th in the first rankings.

The committee really warmed up to the Crimson Tide. Alabama lost to Mississippi in September and then Florida pounded Ole Miss in Gainesville. But the Tide landed in playoff position, while Florida was 10th and Ole Miss was 18th. “Alabama from our point of view had a stronger schedule in the games they have won,” said selection committee chairman Jeff Long, the athletic director at Arkansas. “They have three wins against teams with better than .500 records. They’re close even though they may be separated by a number of ranking spots.” If you think Alabama is positioned to simply win out and get in the playoff, think again. Ole Miss is still in control of the SEC West race, so Alabama will need the Rebels to lose just to reach the SEC championship game. At 11-1 with no conference championship, Alabama is likely to get jumped by teams. Waiting on the Big 12The Big 12 has four teams (Baylor, No. 8 TCU, No. 14 Oklahoma State and No. 15 Oklahoma) in the top 15 and they all play each other in November.Long said it was difficult to judge the strength of those teams because their big games are still to come. The good news for the Power Five conference that got left out of last season’s final four is all of those teams are in good shape to get in the playoff if they win out.The bad news is one loss by the Big 12 champion might be too much to get into the playoff.PAC-12 worries?The Pac-12 is going to need some help getting a team in the playoff.No. 11 Stanford (7-1) and No. 12 Utah (7-1) were the committee’s highest ranked Pac-12 teams. Both are well positioned to surge, but they might have too much traffic in front of them to get into the top four.Best-case scenario for the Pac-12: A Stanford-Utah conference title game produces a 12-1 champion and either the Big 12 contenders knock each other off and create a one-loss champion or the SEC champion has two losses.Eyeing the Irish,/B>The committee really liked Notre Dame’s two-point loss at Clemson, and it will keep the Irish in the playoff hunt as long as they keep winning.