Meanwhile, Oklahoma and Iowa made the leaps into the vaunted Top 4.
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Raise your hand if you had the Big Ten with four teams in the top 10 of the College Football Playoff rankings on the final Tuesday of November, twice the representation of any other conference and four times as many as the SEC.
An Oklahoma loss and a Notre Dame loss could leave Baylor (9-1) and Stanford (9-2) vying for the last spot as conference champions.
Here what Long had to say to ESPN’s Rece Davis about the consideration given to the Sooners in the discussion and voting this week by the Playoff selection committee by clicking on this article and video.
Losing to Ohio State would obviously be painful for MI fans, but they could take many positives from a 9-3 record heading into bowl season. If the committee has to compare 12-1 Clemson without a conference title vs. 11-1 independent Notre Dame, well, the Tigers beat the Irish head to head.
Unbeaten Iowa (11-0) and No. 5 Michigan State (10-1) can set up a possible playoff play-in game in the Big Ten championship if both win this weekend.
Notre Dame: WR Will Fuller. If Clemson can keep North Carolina’s only signature win against Pitt, there’s no way Michigan State’s remaining schedule will allow the Tar Heels to jump them.
Alabama continues to get the benefit of the doubt over other one-loss teams and even undefeated Iowa.
Despite the seeming invincibility of Alabama (No. 2 AP) as of late, the Crimson Tide must still defeat rival Auburn in this week’s Iron Bowl to secure a spot in the SEC championship game opposite of Florida (No. 10 AP).
Oklahoma: wins over No. 7 Baylor, No. 19 TCU and Tennessee (7-4); loss to Texas (4-6).
The Oklahoma Sooners have their biggest game of the season on Saturday as they will take on No. 11 Oklahoma State. 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. Committee chairman Jeff Long contradicted himself when he said “a loss is a loss”, only to follow that with “all losses are not the same”. At No. 5, Michigan State appears to control its destiny, with Iowa up next in Indianapolis if the Spartans win their regular-season finale. Wins this week by the Hawkeyes and Spartans would all but assure that the conference has a spot in the playoff semifinals. No. 25 Temple gives the American Athletic Conference three ranked teams, joining No. 16 Navy and No. 21 Houston. An SEC loss. And beating Florida State before beating Alabama in the SEC championship game should be enough to put them in the top 4. The Sooners can clinch the Big 12 title with a victory, but will they have to play without quarterback Baker Mayfield?
Note, while Oklahoma leads the Bedlam Series 84-18-7, Oklahoma State has won two of the last four meetings including an upset of #18 Oklahoma previous year. “All we can do is try to get a win against Stanford, and hopefully the committee changes their mind”.
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No. 8 Ohio State at No. 12 MI. It’s nearly as though the committee is saying, “This is where Oklahoma will be ranked if it beats Oklahoma State, so we are going to go ahead and slot them there”. But coach Brian Kelly had said earlier Tuesday he believes they will be in if they close the regular season with a win at Stanford (9-2), which is No. 9 in the CFP rankings.
