With a non-conference victory over 10-2 Notre Dame, a 10-point conference win over 10-2 Florida State and four other wins against teams with winning records, Clemson has done everything asked of it up to this point.
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(10-1) Ohio State (#8 in the A&H Rankings): Win at Michigan, have Penn State beat Michigan State, beat Iowa to win the Big Ten title, and hope either Clemson, Notre Dame or Oklahoma loses (or that the SEC champ has two losses), or else hope the committee gives the nod to the Buckeyes over either a 1-loss Notre Dame or 1-loss Oklahoma. Next: Iowa in a winner-take-all Big Ten championship game Saturday in Indianapolis.
It used to be that coaches were safe during the season but teams were not. No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Stanford and even No. 14 North Carolina may all have cases should catastrophe hit the current quartet at the top.
This is just the second time Clemson has started a season 12-0.
The win was impressive – the kind that the College Football Playoff selection committee would be hard-pressed to ignore. Their only loss came to No. 1 Clemson, as locked into the top spot as can be.
Photo of Deshaun Watson by The Associated Press. The Tar Heels have been rolling ever since. UNC can do that, too.
What will the top 10 look like after rivalry weekend?
I wouldn’t take them to beat Ole Miss or Tennessee today, and obviously it would a major upset as a 17-point underdog if they beat Bama, and I’d undoubtedly take the Tide if they played again. The victor of the Big Ten championship game between undefeated Iowa and 11-1 Michigan State appears to be a playoff qualifier, with the Big Ten champion getting one spot.
Baylor (9-2): The Bears could beat Texas 100-0 this weekend and still remain on the outside looking in.
Since last Thanksgiving, the Sooners have gone from has-been to perennial threat.
One spot in the playoff is going to the Big Ten, there’s no two ways about it. It felt like [head coach Bob] Stoops, for all his success over so many years, might finally be fading.
Path to the playoff for Oklahoma: The Sooners should be a lock, period. This is the team nobody wants to face right now. Late-season losses to Oklahoma and Texas Christian killed those hopes. If the Sooners get in, they’ll be the most unsafe team as one that largely flew under the radar all season. Michigan State, 11-1, 1,318 (6) 6.
Speaking of Stanford, the Cardinal are clearly on the outside as they head to nearby Santa Clara to play USC in the Pac-12 title game.
There are two ways for the Buckeyes to potentially make it into the playoff – Florida beating Alabama or North Carolina beating Clemson.
-And Alabama merely needs to beat punchless Florida in the SEC title game to be the only team to make a repeat appearance in the 2-year-old playoff. The Crimson Tide should roll to their fourth SEC title under Nick Saban and gear up for their second straight playoff appearance. If he can’t go, Josh Adams, who has 85 rushes for 589 yards, will be Notre Dame’s No. 1 running back. You can blame body clocks or poor officiating, but the fact of the matter is that if not for that hard-to-explain loss, the Cardinal would be in the playoff with a win in their de-facto home game against USC on Saturday.
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Few will know what might have happened had LSU lost, although one ESPN report claimed Sunday the decision to keep Miles was made during a mature, detached, contemplative stretch of solid play during… the third quarter.
