As Clemson rose to No. 1, the expected turbulence hit the top of the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday evening, nearly all of it from the two foremost Alabama football programs. Auburn’s 26-14 mastery of Alabama last Saturday at Auburn caused the Tigers to vault from No. 6 to No. 2, while the Crimson Tide plunged from No. 1 to No. 5.

Not only did it mark Alabama’s first absence from the coveted top four since November 2014 in the four-season-old playoff concept, but it positioned Auburn (10-2) above five teams with fewer losses.

Eye test-wise, Auburn’s two thumping victories over teams ranked No. 1 at the time – Georgia on Nov. 11 and Alabama – clearly impressed the 13 sets of eyes on the committee.

Behind Auburn sat No. 3 Oklahoma (11-1), No. 4 Wisconsin (12-0), No. 5 Alabama (11-1), No. 6 Georgia (11-1) and No. 7 Miami (10-1). It marked the first entry into the top four for Wisconsin, which started out at No. 9 on Oct. 28 and slowly inched its way up, budging past teams that lost and, in a greater sense, past its own unemphatic schedule.

With Alabama just outside the top four, Clemson’s streak of 17 consecutive rankings within the top four became the nation’s longest run. (The committee does not issue postseason rankings.)

The No. 1 Tigers (Clemson) and the No. 2 other Tigers (Auburn) played each other long ago on Sept. 9, with the former Tigers hogging 11 sacks and winning, 14-6.

Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn stressed Saturday both that he meant no disrespect to Clemson, but that his Auburn team differs utterly from that Auburn team from early September. Both Tigers will play other teams from within the top seven on Saturday, when Clemson opposes Miami in Charlotte in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, and Auburn opposes Georgia in Atlanta in the Southeastern Conference title match.

Alabama, meanwhile, will hope for unrest from above as it seeks to reach a fourth playoff in four years.

It did get something of a boost from the bottom of the rankings, when one of its September victims, Fresno State (9-3), reached No. 25 after having gotten itself together mightily since starting off 1-2 at Alabama (41-10) and Washington (48-16).

Fresno State’s presence gave Alabama, whose array of wins are not as shiny as those of Clemson, Auburn or Oklahoma, three wins over ranked teams, counting No. 17 LSU (9-3) and No. 23 Mississippi State (8-4).

Four teams with vague or vaguer playoff hopes rested just beyond the top seven.

Those were No. 8 Ohio State (10-2), No. 9 Penn State (10-2), No. 10 Southern California (10-2) and No. 11 TCU (10-2). All of those except Penn State get a chance to burnish their resume this weekend, with Ohio State playing Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship, Southern California playing Stanford in the Pacific-12 championship, and TCU playing Oklahoma for the Big 12 title.

Stanford (9-3) held down No. 12, just ahead of Washington (10-2), which has the better record, but which Stanford defeated on Nov. 10.

Still slowly making its way forward was the Group of Five’s top team, Central Florida, whose thrilling win over South Florida gained it only one notch, to No. 14, with its 11-0 record heading into its American Athletic Conference championship match with No. 20 Memphis (10-1).

Notre Dame (9-3), with its 38-20 loss at Stanford, slid from No. 8 to No. 15.

At the top, Clemson lost a ranked victim because it blasted No. 24 South Carolina last Saturday and shooed it from the list, yet it gained one when a previous Clemson victim, North Carolina State (8-4), returned to the chart at No. 24.

Another Clemson victim, Virginia Tech (9-3), went from No. 25 to No. 22. Clemson beat both N.C. State and Virginia Tech on the road.