Those crafty devils in the College Football Playoff committee room tossed their first curveball at America on Tuesday night:

Texas A&M No. 4, Washington No. 5.

This was a great plot twist for a reality TV show, which is what these superfluous weekly rankings are. It was less supportable from a football perspective.

Start with the record: Huskies are undefeated, Aggies have one loss.

Thus to have Texas A&M ahead of Washington, the committee had to place huge value on schedule strength. There’s no doubt that the Aggies have played the more rigorous schedule, with games at both Auburn and Alabama, while Washington has played at Utah and not much else of note just yet.

But it should matter that A&M lost by 19 points in Tuscaloosa, and was outgained by 173 yards. Nobody who watched that game thought the Aggies were within a play or two or six of winning.

It didn’t to the committee. At least not enough.

This smacks of an almost orchestrated attention grab, the kind of surprise that can draw eyeballs on a weekly basis to see what that wacky committee will think of next. Which is fine, I suppose, if everyone takes this for what it is: largely vacuous entertainment from now until the only rankings that matter on Dec. 4.

But this is college football. Fans of the affected teams aren’t likely to laugh this off like an especially silly episode of “Jersey Shore.”

It will spawn widespread outrage and panic in the Pacific Northwest. It will fuel additional screams of Southeastern Conference bias, with that league holding down half the four-team playoff bracket. (Alabama is the given at No. 1.)

So be prepared for the committee to trifle with your fragile emotions and oversensitive nervous systems, fans.

Chris Petersen and the Huskies can’t be happy about the first iteration of the CFP rankings. (AP) More

Looking at the entirety of the committee’s Top 25, Auburn seems to be the key team. If anyone has audio from the Grapevine, Texas, meeting room that reveals the selection committee members yelling “War Eagle!” when their work was done, let us know.

The Tigers were very highly ranked with two losses, coming in at No. 9 – two spots higher than in the AP poll and three higher than the USA Today poll. Clearly Texas A&M got a ton of credit for beating the Tigers, boosting them three spots higher with the committee than in the polls. And Clemson, which also won at Auburn to open the season, was elevated to No. 2 by the committee while residing at No. 3 in the polls.

Looking at A&M and Washington going forward, the Aggies would seem to have a slightly easier chance to win out.

Three of their last four games are at home, with the road trip to woeful Mississippi State. The season finale against LSU (No. 13 in the committee rankings) looms as the most difficult game, but remember the Tigers will be coming off the rescheduled battle against Florida the week before while A&M is coming off a spa treatment against UTSA.

Washington plays a California team Saturday that isn’t great, but is undefeated at home this year with victories over Utah, Texas and Oregon. The Huskies also host a resurgent USC and close the regular season with an Apple Cup showdown with rival Washington State (a team the committee doesn’t love, slotting the Cougars at No. 25).

The Huskies could get the much-discussed “13th data point” with a Pac-12 championship game, while A&M would be capped at 12 games unless Alabama loses twice. Not likely.

But all that is putting the cart before the crazy horse, which the committee let bolt out of the gate in fractious fashion. Just remember, folks, it’s all reality TV at this point.

A few other observations on the inaugural CFP rankings:

• Penn State at No. 12 is a shocker. The Nittany Lions obviously get major credit for beating Ohio State, but they also lost to 5-3 Pittsburgh and were nudged by a mere 39 points by Michigan. The polls have Penn State at 20th and 23rd.

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