In the first three weeks of the College Football Playoff rankings there has been at least one new team in the top four each week. It wasn’t. Notre Dame is in the midst of a 10-1 season and has a game with 9th-ranked Stanford (9-2) looming, but as the sun rose over the Guglielmino Athletic Complex this morning, that game now isn’t almost as critical. Oklahoma will play at Oklahoma State on Saturday with a chance to win the Big 12.
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Oklahoma: A one loss Oklahoma team winning the Big 12 might not be judged the way Baylor and TCU were last season.
The committee is not hung up on the Sooners’ October loss to Texas.
“The combination of them not playing well the last couple weeks combined with high-level wins by Oklahoma and Michigan State resulted (in the switch)”, CFP committee chairman Jeff Long said in an ESPN interview.
If Iowa (at Nebraska) and Michigan State (vs. Penn State) take care of business this weekend, their Big Ten Championship showdown could decide who stays in the Top 4 and who drops out. Johnson loudly objected because his 10-1 Hurricanes, No. 4 in the UPI, had won at Oklahoma 28-17 earlier in the season, and therefore should easily get the nod over the Sooners if they were to defeat Penn State. Keep that resume built up for the Big Ten Championship.
From there, one Big 10 team will be eliminated, Ohio State or MI, in their game against each other.
“…They have so many other great qualities as a football team, that if that’s our weakness where we feel like we’ve got the game in control, we’ll try to work through that one”.
First, the Sooners have some breathing room from Notre Dame, which dropped to No. 6. The Cardinal had already secured the Pac-12 North, and with two losses, a spot in the BCS Championship Game didn’t look likely.
Alabama plays at Auburn, Florida State is at Florida, and the Big 12 Conference offers Baylor at TCU as well as Oklahoma at Oklahoma State. Baylor faced a good Kansas State team at home, posted a solid win, but still was being dragged down by its nonconference schedule.
The selection committee will prepare two more rankings, including the final set on Selection Day (Dec. 6). Honestly, I’m not sure how they are ranked this low and would have them above Ohio State, Stanford and MI. Oklahoma is now ranked No. 3, with Iowa checking in at No. 4.
Asked if the committee views Oklahoma’s loss to Texas as an aberration, Long said, “I think it’s more a function of how Oklahoma has performed since that loss”. He is the fourth Irish player with consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and ranks second all-time with 28 TD catches.
But with each passing week the focus narrows further and we learn a little more about the potential final four teams. Oklahoma made the jump from No. 7 to No. 3, and Iowa comes in at No. 4 this week.
The best part of the weekly rankings is the debate fodder they provide. The Michigan State Spartans are shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc and 70.2 percent from the free throw line. It would mean a lot to the program if they can derail Michigan State’s hopes of making the Big Ten championship game and end their playoff dreams as well. Which is why their surge up the rankings, from No. 7 last week to No. 3 now, probably shouldn’t have surprised as much as it did. Baylor would be the Big 12 champ by virtue of its win over Oklahoma State.
No. 23 Mississippi State and No. 22 UCLA also are ranked again after victories.
Clemson did what it needed to do in dispatching of Wake Forest to finish the ACC regular season 8-0 and now faces SC in the annual rivalry.
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Then the No. 8 Buckeyes could absolutely jump back into the top four next week by beating No. 10 MI.
