Predicting the top 10 in this week's College Football Playoff rankings - USA TODAY

Close wins against teams in the bottom half of the American standings has made things harder on Cincinnati but easier on the College Football Playoff selection committee, which can use games against Navy, Tulane and Tulsa as a defense for keeping the unbeaten Bearcats behind at least three one-loss teams from the Power Five.

But the Bearcats may still move up in Tuesday night's rankings, boosted in spite of the narrow win against the Golden Hurricane by Michigan State's loss to Purdue.

Where the Spartans are ranked on Tuesday evening will impact the landing spot for several teams outside of what should be an uncontroversial top four.

Michigan State could land as high as fifth, which would recognize the recent win against Michigan and four road wins against Power Five competition. The Spartans could also fall as low as ninth, should the committee overlook the tiebreaker against the Wolverines and focus on the Purdue game and sloppy wins against Indiana and Nebraska.

One factor to keep in mind is the role head-to-head results played in the debut rankings, led by Oregon being ranked ahead of Ohio State. If that remains an important data point — and it's always hard to guess what the committee will value from week to week — the Spartans' loss may drop rival Michigan down in the rankings even after the Wolverines' solid win against Indiana.

Here's how the top 10 could look:

Which SEC quarterback leads the conference in yards per attempt and efficiency rating? That would be Georgia's Stetson Bennett, who has run with the starting job since replacing an injured JT Daniels in early September and created a difficult decision for coach Kirby Smart. That's about the only source of controversy for the no-doubt No. 1 team in this week's rankings.