UNDATED (AP) — The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season will be unveiled Tuesday night, revealing the scope of the national championship race while also providing Exhibit A in the case for expanding the field. When the proposed 12-team format was made public in June, participation was touted as one of the the main reasons for expanding the field. The current four-team format is fine for crowning a deserving champion, but not only has it reduced interest in the rest of the non-playoff bowl games among fans, players and even coaches — it has narrowed the focus on the final month of the season to barely 10% of all major college football teams.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona State is still trying to climb to the next tier under coach Herm Edwards. The Sun Devils went to bowl games in his first two seasons before finishing 2-2 in the the pandemic-altered 2020 season. They went into this season with high expectations, but have fallen flat after consecutive disheartening losses to Utah and Washington State. Arizona State allowed Utah to score 28 straight points in a 35-21 loss to the Utes, and fell into a 28-point hole against the Cougars before losing 34-21. The Sun Devils are still only a game behind Utah in the Pac-12 South, with games against USC, Washington, Oregon State and rival Arizona left.

UNDATED (AP) — Never in the seven-year history of the College Football Playoff has the selection committee’s first top four teams exactly matched that of the AP Top 25 that directly preceded it. The latest Associated Press college football poll presented by Regions Bank makes it highly unlikely this year will be the first. Georgia remained No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Sunday and looks like a lock to be first in the committee’s rankings Tuesday night. Cincinnati stayed at No. 2 in the media poll and AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo says the chances of the CFP rankings going in that direction are pretty much zero. The selection committee has never ranked a team from the Group of Five higher than No. 7 in any of its rankings.

UNDATED (AP) — Long kickoff returns came in bunches over the weekend. Four players ran back kicks 100 yards Saturday. That’s most in a single day since there were five maximum-distance returns Oct. 31, 2015. Two occurred in the same game. SMU’s Bryan Massey ran back the second-half kickoff against Houston and the Cougars’ Marcus Jones went all the way with 17 seconds left to produce his team’s 44-37 win. BYU’s Tyler Allgeier had 266 yards against Virginia for the top rushing performance. Caleb Williams’ six touchdown passes for Oklahoma against Texas Tech were most by a freshman since 2016.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California receiver Drake London will miss the rest of the season with a broken right ankle. The injury likely ends the collegiate career of one of the nation’s top wideouts this season. London was hurt when he was tackled by Arizona cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace as he crossed the goal line late in the first half to score in the Trojans’ victory over Arizona on Saturday night. He had with nine catches for 81 yards and two TDs before he was taken off the Coliseum field on a cart, and he returned to the USC sideline to watch the second half.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.