In a lot of ways, you would think that this week's College Football Playoff Rankings are the most important of the season before the final rankings. After all, they're the penultimate rankings. They're our last glimpse at what the CFP Selection Committee is thinking, and they give us a chance to determine what needs to happen for each team with playoff hopes.

After seeing this week's poll, I'm overcome by the sense that they don't mean anything this week. Sure, there were changes. Clemson moves up to No. 1 and Auburn leaps to No. 2, while Wisconsin finally cracks the top four and Alabama hovers just outside at No. 5, but they don't mean anything this week. Less so than usual, I mean.

The only real takeaway is that if the teams in the top four win this week, they're going to be our playoff field. Maybe the seeds will change, but they'll be the four. If any of them lose, these rankings tell us nothing. It will depend on who does the losing to who, and how. Still, I do have some thoughts about a few teams this week I'm going to share.

No. 2 Auburn -- Just Right

I hate it, but the committee nailed Auburn. Now, I want to make something clear here. I don't hate Auburn's ranking because I don't think it's the second-best team in the country right now. Quite the contrary, actually. I think Auburn might be the best team in the country. But those two losses! Oh, how I hate those losses! Not because they're ugly losses; they are not. There's no shame in losing to Clemson, and while that LSU loss was a result of Auburn shooting itself in the foot, it still came to an LSU team that is 9-3 and currently ranked No. 17.

I just hate the idea of a team with two losses being ranked ahead of an undefeated Power Five team, no matter who it is in that position. But in this instance, much as I may not like it, I have to concede the point. Auburn has two losses. It also has two wins over the No. 1 team in the country in the last three weeks. There's a better argument to be made that Auburn should be No. 1 right now than No. 3.

No. 7 Miami -- Just Right

I've written roughly 1,000 words in this space on Miami the last couple weeks, and they've largely been arguing that Miami should be higher than it was ranked or that it deserved to be No. 2 last week. Now I'm here telling you that it deserved to fall as far as it did. The crux of my argument for Miami in recent weeks was that it hadn't lost a game but had picked up a couple of impressive wins against Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

Well, Notre Dame is now accurately ranked at No. 15 following a third loss, and Tech is No. 22. They're still good wins, but they've lost some of that shine. Also, the loss to a 5-7 Pitt is ugly. Clemson has an uglier loss, but the Tigers have more impressive wins than Miami does, and now that they share the same number of losses, Clemson should be six spots higher than the Hurricanes. That being said, if Miami beats Clemson in the ACC Championship, that should be enough to place it in the top four. So if you are a Miami fan worried about falling this far, don't be.

No. 14 UCF -- Slightly Underrated

Well, we know for a fact that UCF athletic director Danny White doesn't agree with the committee.

I don't think the committee is that far off, however. Now, I will scream from any mountaintop that undefeated teams deserve more respect than they've been getting this year (hello, Wisconsin), but in my mind, there's a significant difference between an undefeated Power Five team and an unbeaten Group of Five team.

UCF is good. It might be very good, and there are a few Power Five teams I'd expect it to beat on a neutral field. But its resume isn't anything remarkable aside from the zero in the loss column. It crushed No. 20 Memphis, and it had a fantastically entertaining close win against South Florida. But in my mind, South Florida's been overrated all season. Just because so many people -- including myself -- thought it would be the AAC powerhouse UCF turned out to be doesn't mean it's anything close to resembling one, even at 9-2. It's best win is probably a 6-6 Temple team.

After those Memphis and USF wins, UCF's schedule gets very thin. Like, your friends are worried about you type of thin. So while I would like to see it ranked a few spots higher -- ahead of Stanford and Washington maybe -- I don't think it's wrong to have them behind those teams, either.