Oklahoma moved into third and Iowa was fourth in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday. Oklahoma State only suffered their first loss of the season this past weekend and would love nothing more than to ruin Oklhoma’s season.
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Both Oklahoma (Oklahoma State) and Notre Dame (Stanford) have tough road games to claim the last playoff spot.
“Clemson was solidly in that No. 1 spot”, Long said, “and there was no real indication that Alabama was going to challenge them for that No. 1 spot in this week’s rankings”. 3 and 4, respectively, behind top-ranked Clemson and No. 2 Alabama. Last week Oklahoma defeated TCU 30-29 at home, and only one team ranked ahead of them last week – Ohio State – lost.
The Gators have clinched their spot in the SEC championship game, but few are feeling great about the way they have been playing. Maybe the committee changes its mind after this weekend – it’s not like that didn’t happen previous year, when Ohio State went from No. 6 to No. 4 in the final rankings – but most likely, the upshot of Tuesday’s rankings is that Notre Dame needs some help. The biggest detractor for Michigan State will be the loss at Nebraska. These are the teams that still have a shot at sneaking in and it will be interesting to see how the Playoff Committee goes about ranking these teams. An Oklahoma State win over Oklahoma would solve plenty of problems, as would TCU knocking Baylor out on Friday. Their mid-October loss to Texas, compared to Notre Dame’s Week 1 rout over the Longhorns, isn’t holding down Oklahoma. Starting at the very top and working the way down, just like the CFP committee does it, start with the top team and flow everything from there.
Should be an exciting week in which most teams will be ending their regular season.
Then there’s this: No matter what committee says in public, they won’t want to shaft the Big 12 two years in a row or the CFP system begins to be questioned – not just by the Big 12 but everyone in media. The Big Ten is all over the playoff rankings. The Buckeyes, who began the season as a unanimous No. 1 and slipped to No. 2 earlier this month, fell to eighth.
UNC would be a one-loss ACC champ (with two FCS wins and a awful loss to South Carolina). Iowa is still undefeated and finally in the top four.
What if all hell breaks loose and Stanford has two losses, and three of the remaining four Power 5 conference champions also have two losses? Toledo (10-1) out of the Mid-American Conference came in at No. 24, followed by Temple (9-2) at No. 25.
Michigan State made some moves as well, and now lurk on the perimeter of the playoff.
Paul Rhoads is out after seven seasons as coach at Iowa State. The Cowboys tumbled five spots after losing to Big 12 rival Baylor for their first loss of the season. But would the playoff committee really be prepared to leave out a one-loss SEC champion?
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No. 14 Florida State at No. 10 Florida. If the Tigers can pull off the upset while Ole Miss takes down Mississippi State, the Rebels will complete a surprising, nonlinear run to the SEC title game.
