The first College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday night and a clear message was sent to Notre Dame: win out, or else.

Forget the "what if this" or "what if that" regarding the rankings.

Notre Dame checked in 11th in the initial rankings, and if it finishes anything short of 11-1 this regular season, the Fighting Irish should brace for missing the CFP for a second straight year.

The entire top 25 was released on Tuesday night, and Notre Dame checking in at No. 11 wasn't the only questionable decision. Check out the entire rankings below and decide just how many things stick out.

25. Boise State
24. Florida
23. Oregon
22. Arizona
21. South Carolina
20. USC
19. Iowa
18. Missouri
17. Houston
16. Wake Forest
15. Texas
14. LSU
13. Tennessee
12. Ohio State
11. Notre Dame
10. Ole Miss
9. BYU
8. UCLA
7. Texas
6. Kentucky
5. Alabama
4. Indiana
3. Utah
2. Georgia
1. Miami

Boy, where do we even start? Since this is a Notre Dame site, let's begin there.

Notre Dame hasn't beaten anyone with a pulse besides Wisconsin and North Carolina, and both of those teams fell short of the top 25. If the measuring stick is about who you have played, then sure, Notre Dame can be ranked 11th, I suppose.

However, how on God's Green Earth is Indiana then No. 4?

Indiana's best win is...at home against unranked Northwestern? On the road at unranked Nebraska or Michigan?

At home, barely escaping against Minnesota despite being a nearly three-touchdown favorite?

And its loss came at home to the No. 12 team, not on the road against the No. 9 team?

Congratulations to the politicians who got people to believe their propaganda-filled campaigns and won their campaigns on Tuesday night.

No, I'm not talking about a single Democrat or Republican, but instead about the football folks from the SEC.

The machine that is the ESPN-SEC brand is in complete control of the College Football Playoff, and has it set up to only be moreso in coming weeks.

Five of the top 10 teams are from the SEC, but looking a week ahead, that could easily grow by two more.

So Ohio State has a win over the No. 4 team in the country, in that team's building, but is the 12th-best team in the country?

It lost by one at No. 7 Texas, yet is ranked five full spots behind the Longhorns, and lost this past week at No. 20 USC. Yet its seven spots behind a two-loss Alabama team that lost a close game at home to Georgia and got fired into the sun at Tennessee.

The committee made it crystal clear Tuesday night that Notre Dame has no margin for error.

If it doesn't finish 11-1 at this point, then it better start deciding if its going to decline its invitation to the Pop-Tarts Bowl again (sidenote- by all means, decline the Savannah Bananas of college football).

This thing is set up for the SEC to have half the field this year, but should we really be surprised?

While it made the debate appear to be between Notre Dame and Miami last season, the true debate should have been between Notre Dame and Alabama.

The three-loss Crimson Tide, who were dominated at lowly Florida State to start the year, were rewarded with the CFP berth while Notre Dame sat at home.

That happened because the committee quietly moved Alabama ahead of Notre Dame following the final week of the regular season - when Alabama snuck by an Auburn team that went just 1-7 in SEC play, and Notre Dame manhandled Stanford on the road.

The committee sold it as being between Notre Dame and Miami a week later because they stacked the cards against Notre Dame immediately following the regular season.

It's doing it again this year, but at least it is making things crystal clear from the start.

Notre Dame's College Football Playoff run starts Saturday when it hosts No. 1 Miami.

The next loss the Fighting Irish suffer will be the one that eliminates it from being able to win a national championship.

So, from here out it's Notre Dame against the college football world - the same as it's ever been.