Notre Dame Beat No. 1. Tuesday, the Committee Decides What That Was Worth.

Sunday took care of itself. The AP Top 25 came out with Georgia at No. 1, Utah at No. 2, Notre Dame at No. 3 and Miami down to No. 5, and for about 48 hours that is the ranking everybody argues about. Then Tuesday night arrives, the College Football Playoff selection committee releases its second top 25 of the season, and the AP poll goes back to being a nice Sunday tradition. The committee's list is the one that seeds the bracket, and this committee has already shown it does not think like the voters do.

Look at its first rankings from last week. Miami sat at No. 1, same as the AP. After that, the agreement ended. Georgia was No. 2, Utah No. 3 and Indiana No. 4 — and Alabama, carrying two losses, was No. 5, ahead of unbeaten teams. Texas was No. 7, three spots higher than the AP had the Longhorns. Notre Dame was No. 11 and Tennessee No. 13, both low enough that their fans spent the week howling, and both, as it turned out, one Saturday away from making the committee revisit everything.

The test case wears gold helmets

Notre Dame did the loudest possible thing a No. 11 team can do: it beat the committee's No. 1. The Irish led Miami by 21 points in the second half before the Hurricanes dragged it back to 31-24, and CJ Carr finished 29-of-40 for 319 yards and three touchdowns against a defense that had not lost all season. The one criticism the committee could hide behind last week — no signature win — is gone. What is left is a genuine argument about how far one win should move a team in seven days.

The projections cannot agree, which tells you how real the argument is. NCAA.com's committee prediction, NBC Sports and College Football News all slot Notre Dame at No. 5 on Tuesday. Brad Crawford's projection is more cautious and lands the Irish at No. 7. Nobody serious has them staying near No. 11, and nobody has them in the top four, either. The Irish's remaining schedule — Boston College, SMU and a trip to Syracuse — offers no more head-to-head gifts, although SMU sneaking into the AP poll at No. 25 on Sunday quietly turned that game into a ranked matchup. Tuesday's number is close to the number Notre Dame will have to defend the rest of the way.

Georgia and Utah are the easy part

The top of Tuesday's list is the one thing every projection shares. Georgia goes to No. 1 after going into Oxford and beating Ole Miss 42-7, outgaining the Rebels 481-252, rushing for 295 yards and leading 28-0 at halftime. Gunner Stockton had a hand in five of Georgia's six touchdowns. Utah, 9-0 after holding off BYU 28-20 in the Holy War, is projected No. 2 by the same consensus — an unbeaten Big 12 champion-in-waiting the committee already had at No. 3 before the Irish and Hurricanes rearranged the furniture below.

Alabama is the committee's other argument

If Notre Dame tests how much the committee rewards a win, Alabama tests how much it trusts its own first impression. The committee put the two-loss Crimson Tide at No. 5 last week, the highest any two-loss team sat, largely on a résumé that NCAA.com's projection notes carries the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country. Then Alabama went to Baton Rouge and beat LSU 31-13, and the projections split again: NCAA.com and NBC Sports move the Tide up to No. 3, jumping an Indiana team that still does not own a top-25 win, while other projections hold Alabama at No. 4 or No. 5. Where Alabama lands relative to Indiana is the committee telling on itself — schedule strength and the eye test on one side, an unbeaten record with a thinner résumé on the other.

Who ran out of road on Saturday

Tuesday is also an elimination notice for a proud group. Ohio State's 41-28 loss to Oregon — a game the Buckeyes led 14-0 before Oregon scored 38 straight points — was the Buckeyes' second straight defeat, dropped them to 6-3 and sent them tumbling to No. 21 in the AP poll, their lowest spot since 2014. They are trying to survive without injured quarterback Julian Sayin, and the math is cold: Ohio State, LSU, Ole Miss and Missouri all carry three losses now, and as Bleacher Report put it Sunday, that leaves a path to the playoff that is narrow and perhaps impossible. Tennessee, meanwhile, went the other direction — a 34-6 rout of No. 6 Kentucky, its second top-10 win of the season, has the Volunteers projected to climb from No. 13 into the top eight.

And keep one eye on the unbeaten team nobody is projecting anywhere near the top four. UCLA is 9-0 after winning 34-20 at Minnesota, sits at No. 4 in the AP poll, and still has to find out whether this committee values a zero in the loss column the way it values Alabama's schedule. That answer, more than any single slot, is what Tuesday night is really about. The reveal is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10, and Previously will carry the full rankings and the updated bracket picture when they land.