Ole Miss lost a coach and moved up a spot anyway. Notre Dame didn’t lose a thing but the Irish fell.

The release Tuesday of the latest College Football Playoff rankings produced its fair share of eye-openers and head-scratchers — plenty to talk about before the final rankings and the actual pairings for the 12-team playoff come out this weekend after a slate of conference title games.

Undefeated Ohio State and Indiana remained at 1 and 2 in the rankings, while Georgia moved to third and Texas Tech rose to No. 4.

The rest of the top 12: Oregon, Mississippi, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU and Miami.

Even though Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin left the school for LSU last weekend, the selection committee moved the Rebels up one spot to No. 6. Committee chairman Hunter Yuracheck explained the panel talked about the upheaval in Oxford but didn’t quite know what to make of it.

“We don’t have any way to evaluate what Ole Miss looks like, plays like, without its head coach,” Yurachek said. “We can only evaluate what we know, and what we know now is Ole Miss is an 11-1 football team.”

Notre Dame is a 10-2 football team, same as Alabama, but those two flip-flopped spots after wins last week.

The Tide is now ranked No. 9 — in a much better position to grab an at-large berth if they lose to Georgia in the SEC title game — while Notre Dame is No. 10, a little more on the bubble despite a 10-game winning streak.

Yurachek described the debate pitting two of the nation’s most storied programs as one “that has really split our committee room.”

“We all think highly of both teams,” he said. “There are some in the Alabama camp, some in the Notre Dame camp.

Elsewhere:

n Texas Tech reached a new deal with football coach Joey McGuire just days before the fifth-ranked Red Raiders play in the Big 12 championship game. The school announced Tuesday that McGuire’s contract will extend through the 2032 season and include a significant pay raise. The deal will be finalized in the coming days. McGuire is 34-17 in his four seasons. The 11-1 Red Raiders play No. 11 BYU on Saturday.

n Pat Fitzgerald spoke with eight schools about potentially coaching their football teams before choosing to resume his career at Michigan State. The former Northwestern coach and All-America linebacker signed an incentive-laden, five-year, $30 million contract to lead the Spartans back to relevance. The 51-year-old Fitzgerald says Tuesday that the offer was a no-brainer to accept. Fitzgerald will make $5 million guaranteed in his first year and will be paid at least $500,000 more in each of the following seasons.

n North Texas named Neal Brown as its new head coach. He will replace Eric Morris after the 20th-ranked Mean Green complete their record-breaking season. The announcement Tuesday comes just days before North Texas plays No. 21 Tulane in the American Conference championship game. The winner of Friday night’s game is likely to make the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Morris, who has a 22-15 record at UNT, was recently named Oklahoma State’s head coach. Brown, a former West Virginia and Troy coach, has been a special offensive assistant at Texas this season. He was fired by West Virginia last year after a 37-35 record over six seasons.