The Sooners won’t get tangled in that mess. Facebook.com/PeteFiutakCI These are the rankings before the rankings before the rankings. But the pat on the back the Sooners received Tuesday night means the Thanksgiving turkey goes down without too much indigestion. They’re ranked #11 going into the final week. Yeah, there was a ton of movement, but that’s what’s supposed to happen. “All we can do is try to get a win against Stanford and, I guess, hopefully the committee changes their mind”.
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“I think if you look at the teams across the board, we’ve played, from the start in September all the way through November, a very good schedule”, Kelly said. But there’s an approach that’s permeated the team this week: Whatever hand-wringing there may be about Notre Dame’s current outside-looking-in status can’t affect how this team plays against Stanford. Most in the national media perceive the Hawkeyes to not be a legit contender, but they may have the easiest path to the playoffs of any team remaining.
At No. 15, Navy is clearly the top team from outside the Power Five conferences.
The problem now for Notre Dame is it has one game left against No. 9 Stanford. But what did we learn?
If Houston wins, then it would still have the AAC Championship Game against Temple or South Florida to worry about. But it’s more than that. What’s important here though is that while Notre Dame can impress the voters this weekend, with the Sooners also facing a team ranked right in the vicinity of Stanford its hard to imagine anything short of an absolute Notre Dame blowout being enough to get the committee to place Notre Dame back above Oklahoma in the event both win. The Sooners can clinch the Big 12 title with a victory, but will they have to play without quarterback Baker Mayfield? Sure, fine. Oklahoma just beat now-No.
Even with the disappointing game, Kizer ranks 19th in the nation in pass efficiency rating at 152.5. Notre Dame will root for the Hawkeyes to drop their season finale to Nebraska – the same team that took down Michigan State – and then Iowa to beat either Michigan State or Ohio State in the Big 10 championship game. 2 – and it nearly collapsed late against the Horned Frogs. Not any more. The Irish will now need Oklahoma to lose at Oklahoma State Saturday (a distinct possibility), Michigan State to lose at home to Penn State (doubtful), Iowa to lose at Nebraska (a possibility, but doubtful)… and to annihilate the Cardinal in Palo Alto (not likely).
If No. 7 Baylor loses at No. 19 TCU… After beating now-No. 11 Oklahoma State on the road, Baylor could make some massive noise even through it’s down to the third-string quarterback. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has n 8-2 career record against Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy…. So clearly, the committee is losing its crush on Notre Dame.
I also bring up Clemson because they have played against some of the teams that the Fighting Irish have. The No. 5 Michigan State Spartans need to beat Penn State in the season finale to make the Big Ten championship game. As chairman Jeff Long stated, no team controls its own destiny – the committee controls that.
Once a team gets somewhere, it cannot fall by winning, which only serves to underline the fallacy of preseason polls, which can heavily and horribly influence end-of-season polls.
Tuesday evening revealed a shakeup at the top of the College Football Playoff rankings, with two new teams making their first appearance in the top four. Everyone else, win, and win impressively. The Crimson Tide will roll through War Eagle country. This week the Playoff looks like this: No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Iowa. However, these are based on more than that.
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The Irish, fourth in the committee’s previous two rankings, dropped to No. 6. Oklahoma (CFP: No. 3) 6. The Buckeyes have won 10 of the last 11 in the series. At No. 3, and with a high-profile road game remaining against 11th-ranked OSU, OU has the chance of playing in a Cotton Bowl semifinal. There are only two other entries from the SEC in this week’s rankings with in-state foes Ole Miss at No. 18 and Mississippi State at No. 21. Stanford (CFP: No. 9) 16.
