You can be sure Coach Dabo Swinney has been working on his celebration dance for the conference title game.
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No, I am not mentioning Clemson because I think that Notre Dame should be ranked ahead of them, but I am bringing them up for a reason. If Notre Dame wins, beating Stanford is slightly less impressive given that the fifth-best Big Ten also beat Stanford. At this point, Fighting Irish fans just have to sit back, hope for a win on Saturday, and leave the rest to the CFP committee. “We felt Iowa and Michigan State were extremely close”.
HOGAN’S GOODBYE: This will be the final home game for one of the most productive quarterbacks ever to play at Stanford.
Michigan’s playoff chances died with Blake O’Neill mishandled a punt and allowed Michigan State to win in the most improbable fashion imaginable. The Irish could be blocked without an upset or two in the Big Ten over the next couple weeks.
Help needed: After narrowly beating Boston College, the committee banished Notre Dame from the top four.
With only one game left in its regular season, Notre Dame is suddenly facing an uphill battle to reach the College Football Playoff. Penn State is coming off back to back losses but can salvage their season with an upset of the Spartans.
What if Notre Dame beats Stanford this weekend? It’s pretty simple: Defeat TCU and Texas. Either of those scenarios gets in over Notre Dame.
What if Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State this weekend? In 1984, BYU finished its season 12-0 and No. 1 after a 24-17 Holiday Bowl victory over a MI team that finished 6-6. They may be out of the playoff race, but this is still a very good football team. “So that’s a strong schedule and like Oklahoma, they’ve performed very well since that loss to Ole Miss”. Both of these teams have beaten up defenses and USC star receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster was dealing with various injuries during last week’s loss to Oregon. They both need either an Oklahoma loss (which OSU directly controls, but Baylor does not), and a Notre Dame loss. The Midshipmen need to make the most of this season since Niumatalolo may not hang around Annapolis, Maryland, much longer.
Stanford and Oklahoma State are similar opponents. Oklahoma is set to be the conference’s one true champion. Baylor can win the Big 12 title by winning its remaining games combined with an OSU victory over Oklahoma. That’s the biggest obstacle, but far from the only one. If that happens, MI would go to the Big 10 Championship to take on Iowa. They have a solid defensive lineman in Joey Bosa, who is projected to be a first round pick in the next NFL Draft. He cited both their consecutive Top 20 wins against No. 7 Baylor and No. 19 TCU but also their six wins against teams above.500. Their inability to score will hurt them this week, as I am taking Florida State to win in the swamp.
The No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes are the other new team in the College Football Playoff rankings.
If the Crimson Tide lose to Auburn and Mississippi beats Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl, the Rebels would win the SEC West and face Florida in the league title game – eliminating Alabama from playoff contention. If the Hawkeyes beat Nebraska and Sparty then no amount of screaming will keep a 13-0 team out of the playoff.
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At this point previous year, Ohio State was sitting at No. 6 in the committee’s ranking. And if Stanford wins out, the committee might take even a two-loss Cardinal team over the Cowboys. As David Shaw pointed out Tuesday, Stanford should be concerned about its remaining schedule – the challenges there are hard – before fretting about the wins and losses of the teams in front of it. The bottom line is that the Cardinal are still reliant on some chaos, and its arrival is never a guarantee. The Sooners jumped all the way to third in the rankings despite that ugly early season loss at Texas.
