The penultimate college football playoff ranking was released last night with Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Iowa all in. ‘Bama has been totally forgiven for an early loss to Ole Miss.
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Consider last year’s narrative that the lack of title game hurt Big 12 contenders negated.
Ultimately, Long said the committee felt Clemson’s two wins over top-10 teams and undefeated record played a factor in the decision.
Another possibility could be Clemson vs. the Iowa-Michigan State victor on Saturday. The next day, the Buckeyes were invited to the playoffs after TCU fell three spots to No. 6. Although they may not move up from their spot at #3 in the College Football Playoff rankings, they have no more games this year and are highly unlikely to be passed over in favor of another one or two-loss team.
Also on Saturday, top-ranked Clemson will face No. 10 North Carolina to decide the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
The Sooners locked up the Big 12 championship with a blowout victory at Oklahoma State on Saturday.
The other end of the college football rankings has more consternation than the top as the Bowl bubble finally burst. The more likely scenario has the Tigers extending their flawless run with another dominant performance on both sides of the football in order to win the ACC title. Oklahoma State (10-2), 18.
Oklahoma (11-1, 8-1 Big XII) soundly defeated 11th-ranked Oklahoma State 58-23 to clinch the Big XII Conference championship, while Alabama (11-1, 7-1 SEC) beat Auburn 29-13 in the Iron Bowl.
Underrated – No. 19 Houston: I’m not exactly enraged over this, but Houston just doesn’t get enough credit for being 11-1 simply because it’s in the American Athletic Conference. So there’s extra college football with some 5-7 teams involved.
No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 5 Michigan State.
Oklahoma is the lone Power Five conference champion already crowned, and theSooners appear set for one of the four Playoff seeds one season after their conference, the Big 12, was shut out.
Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan State all had ugly wins in 2015 and were dropped for it in the polls at some point during the 2015 campaign.
North Carolina should not expect to be in the playoffs even it it beats the No. 1 team.
The only concern for Notre Dame here is if Clemson loses its playoff spot and the selection committee tabs Stanford instead of Ohio State to replace the Tigers.
If Stanford loses to USC in the Pac-12 title game, that debate likely gets swung even further in the Buckeyes’ favor. The Badgers haven’t had much traction in the poll, and in the committee’s eyes aren’t deserving of one of the nine spots the poll has given to other teams with three or more losses.
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Or maybe Clemson slips from No. 1 to No. 4, and the ACC doesn’t get shut out. Fans of Nebraska, for example, probably don’t want to be reminded on how their team performed or want to see them on TV again until they know they can put away games.
