Notre Dame was dropped out of the College Football Playoff picture Tuesday – essentially – as it was ranked sixth by the committee after being rated fourth for several weeks.
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The fourth set of rankings followed that same trend, and then some as two new teams joined the top four.
“Oklahoma’s body of work, they added to it this past week with another top-25 ranked team”, Long said. 10-1 | at TCU on 11/28Beating Oklahoma State with a third string quarterback was huge for Baylor, but with the TCU game meaning little, it’s not CFP huge. The Cowboys tumbled five spots after losing to Big 12 rival Baylor for their first loss of the season. 5 and 6, respectively.
You can check out the entire top 25 poll below.
The final rankings will be revealed at 9 a.m. PST December 6 on ESPN.
While it’s certainly getting late in the season, there are still plenty of impactful games left on the slate that could lead to significant movement in the rankings.
Oklahoma controls its Playoff future: Beating No. 11 Oklahoma State on Saturday would give OU the outright conference championship and another win on a rapidly growing résumé. Florida slid from No. 8 to No. 12 after needing overtime to beat FAU.
So this weekend for Irish fans it will be cheer, cheer not only for Notre Dame, but for the Nittany Lions to take out MI State, Nebraska to sideswipe Iowa, and for bedlam to prevail in the Oklahoma State-Oklahoma matchup in Stillwater.
Remember when Auburn won the Iron Bowl two years ago on that miraculous 109-yard missed field goal return for a TD? Considered a potential championship team early in the season, the 6-5 Tigers instead find themselves at the bottom of the SEC West. They probably do deserve to be at the top of the one-loss teams (along with Alabama), especially given how tough the schedule has been. Houston falls to 10-1 and now must beat Navy (9-1) to win the American Athletic Association West Division.
“In our view, Oklahoma is better than Iowa”, committee chairman Jeff Long said. Do you really MI to try backdoor their way into the Big Ten Championship like they did in the Sugar Bowl during Brady Hoke’s first year? The Irish could be blocked without an upset or two in the Big Ten over the next couple weeks.
Notre Dame LB Jaylon Smith vs. Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey.
When Ohio State was unbeaten, it looked as if the final spot would come down to Notre Dame or the Big 12 champion. If Ohio State can put together two dominant halves against MI in The Big House, the Buckeyes will be right on the brink of making the playoff. The No. 1 and No. 4 teams, and the No. 2 and No. 3 teams, will play each other in the semifinals on the afternoon and night of December 31 at the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. Again, unless Notre Dame posts some type of monstrous blowout of Stanford, jumping ahead of the Big Ten champ looks very hard. Baylor faced a good Kansas State team at home, posted a solid win, but still was being dragged down by its nonconference schedule. They are looking at playing Florida in the SEC championship.
North Carolina versus Virginia Tech was the last hurrah for one of college football’s greats – Frank Beamer. After defeating the Midshipmen 41-24, Notre Dame has watched Navy go undefeated since, compiling a 9-1 record.
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Five teams are in the top 17 in turnovers gained – 2.
