Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

In the top 25 rankings that matter the most, CSU's football team didn't make the cut.

The College Football Playoff's selection committee released its top 25 Tuesday evening, and Colorado State University (9-1, 5-1 Mountain West) wasn't on the list. No team from a conference outside of the Power Five did, for that matter, with unbeaten Marshall (9-0) also left off.

The 12-member committee will have to choose a champion from a conference outside of the Power Five to participate in either the Cotton, Fiesta or Peach Bowl at the end of the season but so far has not announced anything beyond a top 25 made up entirely of teams from the Power Five conferences.

"All we can do is control what we're doing," CSU coach Jim McElwain said after practice. "I know that we were in their discussion, I'll bet. … The good thing is I think people are talking about us, and that's a great thing."

CSU, which has won eight straight games, was ranked No. 23 this week in the Associated Press media poll and No. 25 in the Amway Coaches' Poll. It's the first time the Rams have been ranked in the top 25 since the start of the 2003 season, when they were No. 23 in the preseason AP poll. They dropped out of the rankings after losing to the University of Colorado in the season opener.

The top four teams in the CFP rankings were Mississippi State (9-0), Oregon (9-1), Florida State (9-0) and TCU (8-1). Were those four teams to finish in those spots, Mississippi State and TCU would square off in one semifinal game while Oregon and Florida State battled in the other, with the winners meeting in the title game Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas. Alabama (8-1) was No. 5 and Arizona State (8-1) was No. 6.

Marshall and CSU are the only teams with one or fewer loss not in the CFP's top 25. Three teams with three losses — No. 17 LSU (7-3), No. 23 Utah (6-3) and No. 24 Texas A&M (7-3) — were ranked. Minnesota (7-2) got the final spot at No. 25.

The committee does not release a list what other teams were considered.

CSU, which has a bye this weekend, has to win its final two regular-season games and hope Boise State (7-2, 4-1) loses one of its final three to get into the MW title game as the Mountain Division champion. The Rams would then have to win that game, as well, to be considered for a spot in the Cotton, Fiesta or Peach Bowl.

Should that happen, they'd be 12-1 and a strong candidate for that berth.

Otherwise, they'll wind up in one of the six bowl games that guarantees a spot to an MW team -- Las Vegas, Poinsettia, Hawaii, New Mexico, New Orleans or Famous Idaho Potato -- or possibly the Valley of the Sun Bowl on Jan. 2 in Tempe, Arizona, if either the Big 12 or Pacific-12 conferences don't have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill their slot in that game.

"We're just going to keep working, keep playing hard and try to win the rest of these games," senior linebacker Aaron Davis said.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news