ATHENS — Life at the top continued for Georgia football with the release of the penultimate CFP rankings.

Coach Kirby Smart had already said his focus would be squarely on the 4 p.m. game with LSU on Saturday, even while some speculated Michigan’s win over Ohio State could vault the Wolverines over the Bulldogs in the CFP rankings.

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It might still happen if the Bulldogs were to struggle with the Bayou Bengals in the SEC Championship Game and Michigan were to dominate Purdue.

Style points do matter to CFP Committees, and recency bias is very real.

So are attractive television matchups, and that’s why some aren’t convinced that if the top four teams win out —Georgia, Michigan, TCU and USC — they would hold their current place.

For now, it’s:

1. Georgia

2. Michigan

3. TCU

4. USC

5. Ohio State

6. Alabama

7. Tennessee

But back to that top four, which will determine the pairings for the CFP Peach Bowl Semifinal in Atlanta, and the CFP Fiesta Bowl Semifinal in Glendale, Ariz. (both to be played on Dec. 31 leading up to the Jan. 9 CFP Championship Game).

Can the CFP committee resist a positively rosy pairing of Michigan and USC?

This, is amid the current landscape where the Rose Bowl must decide today — Wednesday — if it will conform to the same standards as other New Year’s Six bowls so an agreement to expand the CFP playoffs to 12 teams in 2024 can be reached.

If the so-called “Grandaddy of them all” does not, a new contract for expanded playoffs cannot begin until 2026 and the CFP could move forward without the Rose Bowl in the rotation.

Indeed, the CFP drama is not limited to the rankings, nor does the grumbling stop at the top.

Tennessee fans have taken to social media to express their extreme displeasure at Alabama being ranked ahead of the Vols at No. 6.

Tennessee beat the Tide by a 52-49 count with a last-second field goal on Oct. 15, and both teams finished the regular season with identical 10-2 records.

Ultimately, the CFP committee said the Vols’ 63-38 loss to South Carolina weighed heavily in the considerations, as Alabama’s other loss came on a 2-point conversion at LSU.

The fact that Tennessee no longer has Heisman Trophy candidate Hendon Hooker healthy and available also diminishes the team’s current value as it’s measured side-by-side against Alabama.

The real sticking point is how it might affect the bowl lineup the top four teams win their respective championship games.

Ohio State, ranked No. 5, could be headed for the Orange Bowl rather than a return trip to the Rose Bowl, where it would be paired with the ACC championship.

RELATED: How “cluster” could keep Tennessee out of the Orange Bowl

The fact Alabama is ranked higher than Tennessee could send the Tide to the Sugar Bowl where it would likely face Kansas State, and shuffle the Vols to a less-attractive matchup against a G5 team in the Cotton Bowl.

There are plenty of moving pieces, to be sure, with a New Year’s Six bowl puzzle that promises to leave some uptight and have a different look should Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson not make the four-team playoff.

Those three schools have accounted for 17 of the past 32 CFP slots since the current format was introduced in 2014.