The guessing game is almost over.

The College Football Playoff selection committee will release its first of six rankings on Tuesday night (7 p.m. ET/ESPN), finally revealing how the contenders for this season's 12-team field stack up. The 13 members of the group -- four power-conference athletic directors, two Group of 6 athletic directors, six at-large members consisting of former players, coaches and administrators, and one former journalist -- have two full months of data to evaluate. They will begin deliberating on Monday and finish on Tuesday around lunch.

Their task, as stated in their written protocol, hasn't changed: "Select the best teams, rank the teams for inclusion in the playoff, and then assign the teams to the playoff bracket."

It might be one of the more difficult initial rankings in recent years with so many teams having already suffered multiple losses.

How far do they drop Ohio State after the Buckeyes' loss to USC?…