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Boise State moved ahead of BYU in the third installment of rankings released by the College Football Playoff selection committee Tuesday night, putting the Broncos in position to receive a first-round bye ahead of the Big 12 champion.

The top five remain unchanged, with No. 1 Oregon leading the way, followed by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana. But the biggest storyline is the way the committee dropped BYU after a 17-13 loss to Kansas put an end to its unbeaten season.

BYU (9-1) moved down eight spots from No. 6 to No. 14, falling behind No. 12 Boise State (9-1).

Using the current rankings, Oregon (Big Ten), Texas (SEC), Miami (ACC) and Boise State (Mountain West) would be the four highest-rated conference champions and would receive first-round byes in the 12-team playoff. BYU (Big 12) would be included in the playoff as the fifth-highest rated conference champion but would be the No. 12 seed and have to play in the first round.

Based on résumés, Boise State has a better loss than BYU — on the road against No. 1 Oregon, after the Ducks kicked a winning field goal as time expired. BYU lost at home to a Kansas team that is 4-6. The week before, BYU needed a late comeback to beat Utah. The Cougars have not yet played any of the Big 12 teams ranked in the current top 25, though they play at No. 21 Arizona State on Saturday.

“We certainly consider strength [of schedule] in all of the conversations that we have,” Warde Manuel, chair of the CFP committee, said on ESPN’s rankings release show Tuesday night. “We also look at how the teams are playing, and what it is the success on the field.”

BYU’s best win is over SMU, and though the teams are both 9-1 and BYU has the head-to-head win, the Mustangs are ranked one spot ahead at No. 13.

That would still leave them on the outside looking in.

“We watch the games and we see how teams are playing each week,” Manuel said. “So we assess their body of work. We’re going to evaluate it each week, from how the team plays that week, but also the body of work.”

Notre Dame (No. 6), Alabama (No. 7), Miami (No. 8), Ole Miss (No. 9) and Georgia (No. 10) round out the top 10.

“I don’t think they value the Big Ten over the SEC, I think they value wins and losses,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Tuesday, when asked if he thought the CFP committee treasures the Big Ten over the SEC. “So, they place people based on a column, a column of wins and a column of losses, not on the eye test of going to watch them play and see who they play. I think they base it on wins and losses. I don’t think they say, ‘well, this is better than that.’ They just say ‘this record’s better than that.’ That’s the most simple way to do it. It’s not necessarily the 12 best, so we’ll see what happens. I’m not worried about it much. I got to worry about our team and what we got going on.”

The first-round matchups would look like this: No. 12 BYU at No. 5 Ohio State; No. 11 Georgia at No. 6 Penn State; No. 10 Ole Miss at No. 7 Indiana; No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Notre Dame.

“We look at the data, we look at the stats, but we also have to watch the games and see how the teams are performing,” Manuel said. “And it’s a lot of debate. But that’s the value of having 13 people in this committee, with the conversations that are going on.”

Tennessee dropped four spots to No. 11 after its 31-17 loss to Georgia but would be the first team out of the 12-team playoff. Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee are all 8-2 and have different head-to-head wins over one another. Alabama, which jumped Miami to No. 7 after beating Mercer, beat Georgia but lost to Tennessee; Ole Miss beat Georgia and will not play Alabama or Tennessee.

With so much left to be determined in the SEC race, there is a fear that the loser of the SEC championship game could get left out of the playoff as a three-loss team.

“I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches that, they don’t want to be in it,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said during his news conference Monday. “The reward to get a bye versus the risk to get knocked out completely. I mean … that’s a really big risk.”

Texas A&M is also 8-2 but ranked No. 15. Still, the Aggies and Texas are the only two teams with one loss in SEC play. If both teams win this weekend (Texas A&M is at Auburn and Texas hosts Kentucky), their regular-season finale would be for a guaranteed spot in the SEC championship game. So the Aggies are not out of the race yet, either.

Colorado follows Texas A&M at No. 16, then it’s Clemson, South Carolina, Army and Tulane. Four of the last five teams are new to the rankings this week — Arizona State at No. 21, Iowa State at No. 22, UNLV at No. 24 and Illinois at No. 25. Missouri remained at No. 23.

Kansas State, Louisville, Washington State and LSU all dropped out after losses last weekend.

With conference title games approaching, eight SEC teams are ranked in the top 25 this week, along with five Big Ten teams, four Big 12 teams, three ACC teams and two each from the American Athletic Conference and Mountain West.

“We have a lot of value with the teams that make a conference championship game. Making that game is a valuable data point,” Manuel said. “We are ranking the teams through the championship games. But teams that make those championship games, the committee looks at them and puts them in high esteem.”

The four first-round games will be played at the home campus of the higher-seeded teams on Dec. 20 and 21. The four quarterfinal games will be staged at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl presented by Prudential and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

The two semifinal games will take place at the Capital One Orange Bowl and Goodyear Cotton Bowl on Jan. 9 and 10.

The CFP National Championship presented by AT&T is scheduled for Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Additional reporting from ESPN Senior Writer Mark Schlabach.

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Guardians overtake Tigers with historical surge

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Guardians overtake Tigers with historical surge

CLEVELAND — George Valera hit a two-run homer in the third inning, Jose Ramírez had a two-run double in the seventh and the Cleveland Guardians became the first major league team to overcome a deficit of 15½ games and take the lead in either division or league play, beating the Detroit Tigers 5-1 on Wednesday night.

Cleveland (86-72) has a one-game lead over Detroit (85-73) with four games to play. The Guardians also have the tiebreaker by taking the season series.

The 1914 Boston Braves were 15 games back in the National League on July 4 and rallied to win by 10½ games according to Elias Sports Bureau. Since baseball went to division play in 1969, the biggest deficit overcome was 14 games by the 1978 New York Yankees to win the AL East.

Tanner Bibee (12-11) won his third straight start and allowed only one run in six innings, extending the streak of Guardians starters allowing two or fewer runs to 19 games. They are the first since the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays to go at least 19 games.

Detroit has dropped eight straight and is out of first place for the first time since April 22, when the Guardians led by a half-game. Jack Flaherty (8-15) took the loss.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the third when Parker Meadows‘ sacrifice fly drove in Dillon Dingler.

Brayan Rocchio led off the Cleveland third with a double and then scored when Valera’s drive appeared short of the wall in center before it was deflected off the glove of Meadows.

Ramírez broke it open in the eighth with a two-run double to right field that deflected off the glove of Detroit second baseman Gleyber Torres. He became the second player in Cleveland franchise history to reach 3,000 total bases. The other was Earl Averill with 3,201 from 1929 through ’41.

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Phils seal 1st-round bye behind team-record 8 HRs

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Phils seal 1st-round bye behind team-record 8 HRs

PHILADELPHIA — Edmundo Sosa hit three of Philadelphia’s team-record eight home runs, Kyle Schwarber had two to pad his National League lead and the Phillies wrapped up a first-round bye with an 11-1 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

Assured one of the top two seeds in the NL, the East champion Phillies (93-65) will open the postseason at home Oct. 4 in a best-of-five division series.

Schwarber hit Nos. 55 and 56, and also doubled and singled. He trails Seattle’s Cal Raleigh by three for the major league homer lead after Raleigh hit his 59th in the first inning of the Mariners’ game against Colorado.

Philadelphia hit seven homers against Atlanta on Aug. 28, with Schwarber getting four of them.

Sosa was activated before the game after being out since Sept. 16 because of a groin injury. Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Otto Kemp also homered.

Jesus Luzardo (15-7) struck out 10 in seven innings against his former team. He allowed three hits and one run.

Marlins starter Ryan Weathers (2-2) lasted 4⅔ innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits — three of them homers. Valente Bellozo allowed four homers in the seventh.

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Dodgers activate Sasaki amid bullpen struggles

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Dodgers activate Sasaki amid bullpen struggles

PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers activated rookie Roki Sasaki from the 60-day injured list Wednesday, and the right-hander is expected to throw out of the bullpen over the final five games of the regular season to see if he can earn a postseason role.

Manager Dave Roberts confirmed the move, saying right-hander Kirby Yates will head to the injured list because of a lingering hamstring issue. The move is retroactive to Sept. 21.

Roberts said he doesn’t have a specific role for Sasaki, but wanted him to take advantage of his opportunities.

“Giving everything he has for an inning or two at a time,” Roberts said. “That’s kind of what I see. Let the performance play out. Just go after guys and be on the attack.”

Sasaki, 23, is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 34⅓ innings over eight big league appearances this season, all starts. He has also spent time at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he was 0-2 with a 6.10 ERA over seven appearances, including five starts.

The defending World Series champion Dodgers are searching for bullpen help as the postseason approaches. Tanner Scott blew a save in Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Sasaki agreed in January to a minor league contract with a $6.5 million signing bonus as an international amateur free agent under Major League Baseball’s rules, leaving the Pacific League’s Chiba Lotte Marines under the posting system.

His debut season in the big leagues has been mostly disappointing, but the Dodgers hope he can still have a role in October.

Sasaki is one of three Japanese players on the Dodgers’ roster along with two-way star Shohei Ohtani and right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

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