It would be hard to explain leaving the Big 12 out two years in a row when it had a team ranked No. 3 before championship Saturday.
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Alabama, the lone SEC team with a shot at the national title, will face a Florida squad that took another stumble this week.
Since only four conference champions can get into the playoffs, a victory over the Tigers does not guarantee North Carolina a spot in the playoffs.
While either Iowa or Michigan State will lose, idle Ohio State (11-1) must hope another team from above also loses – either Clemson, which plays No. 10 North Carolina (11-1) in the ACC Championship Game, or Alabama, which plays No. 18 Florida (10-2) in the SEC Championship Game. With the Oklahoma Sooners essentially locked into the playoff after winning the Big 12, three spots remain with four Power 5 championships to fill the holes. The Irish, last week’s No. 6, dropped to eighth.
If North Carolina defeats Clemson, the Tar Heels are guaranteed spot in a New Year’s Six Bowl (and possibly the playoff). However, a loss to the Tar Heels would drastically change the outlook for the Tigers’ season and could be enough to bump them out of the top four entirely.
Folks, they lost on a failed two-point conversion to No. 1 Clemson and lost on a field goal as time expired against now No. 7 Stanford.
No. 1 Clemson just needs to beat No. 10 North Carolina in the ACC title game to lock up its place. There do not appear to be any great teams with the possible exception of Oklahoma and Alabama.
Led by Heisman hopeful Deshaun Watson and buoyed by a huge early-season win over Notre Dame, Clemson has been the wire-to-wire No. 1 team since the first playoff rankings were released. From a committee? How do they make their decisions anyway? The experts at TheMachinesPicks.com are not giving away too much detail on who they think will win.
Iowa: The Hawkeyes lose their first game of the season in Indianapolis on Saturday and are passed over for the Rose Bowl in favor of Ohio State.
No. 1 Clemson (12-0) will be playing No. 10 UNC (11-1) at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.at 8:00 p.m. EST, aired on ABC. When asked whether the committee has discussed the relative strengths of schedule of North Carolina and Ohio State (their SOS is nearly identical in the Sagarin ratings) in making their rankings, Long said the committee does not consider the Sagarin ratings and doesn’t know how they are calculated, and added that “In the multiple number of metrics we look at, they’re not close”.
The Nebraska loss seemed to dispel any chances for Mark Dantonio’s team, but this squad turned it around to contain Ohio State’s offensive arsenal on the road.
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If Stanford were to make the playoff, the Pac-12 rep would likely be OR, ranked No. 16. That loss opened the door for Sparty to compete in the Big Ten Championship as the top team from the East division and at this point, it looks as though Ohio State’s chances of reaching the playoff have passed them by. The championship game will be on January 11 in Glendale, Ariz.
