Stanford is the only Pac-12 team in the conversation, and the conference could potentially be eliminated entirely if USC upsets the Cardinal in the conference title game. Michigan State and Iowa, ranked fourth and fifth in the latest CFP Poll respectively, will battle it out on Saturday, and the victor will head to football’s Final Four. But it’s plain to see Oklahoma should be OK.
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The selection committee is composed of 12 members, including Jeff Long, Barry Alvarez, Mike Gould, Kirby Hocutt, Tom Jernstedt, Bobby Johnson, Tom Osborne, Dan Radakovich, Condoleeza Rice, Mike Tranghese, Steve Wieberg and Tyrone Willingham. Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, Michigan State, Stanford and North Carolina can.
The rankings that will actually determine which four teams will play for a national title, and which ones are headed off to bowl games of a lesser stature. While the rankings seem to have always favored Big 12 stalwarts like the Sooners, Texas and Oklahoma State, both TCU and Baylor made major statements previous year that they are conference powerhouses, leading to controversy over the final playoff rankings. The Cardinal can win the Pac-12 championship Saturday by beating Southern California for the second time this year.
Ohio State and North Carolina should have settled this: The Buckeyes and Tar Heels should have played by now.
If everything doesn’t go as expected, the selection committee may need to put on its big-boy boxers and make a tough decision. Florida State was led on offense by star running back Dalvin Cook, who ran for 183 yards and two touchdowns. OR 9-3 17. Oklahoma State 10-2 18.
Not only could underdogs from non-Power 5 conferences be included to spice up the tournament, but the committee could also include all realistic championship contenders if the playoff were expanded. Basically, it’s a tiebreaker.
“There’s multiple things in there that have held North Carolina back, their overall strength of schedule is not strong, again, depending on the metrics we look at, they’re very high in their strength of schedule, which is not a positive for them”, Long said.
The big question is who can still make the playoff and who can’t?
The SEC is out.
There are other teams in the top 10: Ohio State, Notre Dame and Florida State.
With only Michigan State remaining a possibility on my preseason wish list, here are the scenarios for the Final Four. When those hopes were dashed, the Buckeyes’ repeat playoff dreams became even more remote.
So I am no longer of the opinion that Ohio State will get into The Playoff with a Clemson loss. North Carolina is riding an 11-game winning streak after dropping their opener to SC. If the Cougars defeat No. 22 Temple (10-2) in this weekend’s AAC Championship Game, they should receive an invitation to a New Year’s Six access bowl. Even then, the committee would have to be convinced a two-loss Stanford team deserves a spot over a one-loss Ohio State team. Four different Hawkeye players recording an interception in the win against Nebraska last weekend, the first time since Oct 23, 2004 Iowa had accomplished that in league play.
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Clemson, S.C.- Clemson was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the College Football Playoff Poll released Tuesday night, December 1. But most likely they’d be No. 2 if Clemson also wins. Their 12 consecutive wins include 6 contests where they prevailed by single digits, all of which came against teams power ranked no higher than 29th by nERD. Only Michigan (5) played more while Northwestern, USC and LSU played the same number as Notre Dame.
