The latest College Football Playoff Rankings have had some shakeups and Iowa finds itself as one of the top 4. Zaire’s replacement in DeShone Kizer has been more than competent as the team’s starting signal-caller. “And, again, like previous year (with Ohio State’s Cardale Jones) it speaks to the strength of that overall team that they could continue to perform at a high level with a third-string quarterback”. Should Michigan State win against Penn State, their Big Ten Championship match-up against Iowa will basically be a play-in for the College Football Playoff.
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The College Football Playoff selection meeting room is all business in Grapevine, Texas. They have clinched the Big Ten West and a spot in the conference title on December 5. They have already written themselves off to the spoiler roll, meanwhile Baylor, although coming off a loss, showed up to play at Oklahoma State and proved they are not out of playoff discussions just yet. Iowa has some great betting value right now, but those odds will decrease significantly with each passing victory.
First off, Notre Dame has to take care of business this weekend as an underdog on the road against Stanford – a venue in which the Irish have not won since that disastrous 2007 campaign.
Baylor and Oklahoma State are in a similar boat, with identical resumés.
What’s new? The Alabama Crimson Tide are back contending for a top spot in the College Football Playoff.
They’ll get one more chance to do so Saturday night (7:30 EST, FOX), though now as the No. 6 team as they take on CFP No. 9 Stanford (9-2), in need of not only winning impressively but now needing help from teams such as Nebraska (5-6), Penn State (7-4) and Oklahoma State (10-1). Notre Dame would have to be “unequivocally one of the four best teams in the country” as an independent, according to the committee’s stated criteria.
How I see it: OK, who else in August had Clemson and Iowa as the final two unbeaten teams?
If No. 7 Baylor loses at No. 19 TCU…
Northwestern is the only other Big Ten team ranked, and comes in at 16. Ohio State was in a similar position as the Irish, ranked No. 6 heading into the final week of the season, and jumped TCU and Baylor by throttling a top-15 Wisconsin side, 59-0.
Michigan State jumped three spots to No. 6 after upsetting Ohio State 17-14 on Saturday. Michigan State is fifth, then Notre Dame. Their mid-October loss to Texas, compared to Notre Dame’s Week 1 rout over the Longhorns, isn’t holding down Oklahoma. Oklahoma remains the Big 12’s best hope to fend off one-loss independent Notre Dame, although the Fighting Irish could bolster their resume this week against Stanford. This is a veteran-laden team with plenty of players who went through that 2012 season, in which Notre Dame went undefeated but still needed losses by Kansas State, Oregon and Alabama to finish the regular season with a No. 1 ranking.
One-loss Florida could also still make an argument for inclusion if it beats Florida State in the Swamp and then Alabama in the conference title game.
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All Michigan State has to do to make the Playoff is win the rest of its games and it’s in. The way things stand, if Michigan State and Iowa win this weekend, their Big Ten Championship matchup will send the victor to the playoff, for sure. The Irish wrap up the regular season against No. 11 Stanford Saturday.
