Conference championships are upon us and that can greatly impact the landscape of the top 4.
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Clemson has been ranked No. 1 by the College Football Playoff committee since their initial rankings were released earlier in the year and there is every reason to think they will stay in that seed as long as they take down the No. 14 North Carolina Tar Heels in the ACC Championship game. Clemson or Alabama needs to lose.
Defending champion Ohio State (11-1) occupies the No. 6 spot. So the question is whether North Carolina, with a win over Clemson and an ACC title, would be ranked ahead of Ohio State or not? Ohio State was unbeaten before falling to Michigan State and already Alabama was in front of it. One-loss teams can be moved in front of unbeatens.
The Iowa-Michigan State victor apparently is in, so any change to the playoff lineup probably would have to start with a loss by Clemson (Atlantic Coast Conference) and/or Alabama (Southeastern) in their conference-title games. The Irish beat top 25 teams in No. 20 USC, No. 22 Temple and No. 23 Navy.
Even with an upset in one of those games it may not be enough for Ohio State to slide into the 4 playoff spot. The Cowboys would own the tiebreaker by virtue of their head-to-head win over the Frogs. Some analysts argued that either Alabama or Oklahoma, which each won convincingly Saturday, could ascend to the No. 1 spot this week.
I’m an Ohio State supporter, their not my favorite college program, but I respect what they’ve been able to overcome.
The Sooners locked up the Big 12 championship with a blowout victory at Oklahoma State on Saturday. The rest of the top-10 is rounded out with Florida State at No. 9 and North Carolina at No. 10.
“It isn’t only the FCS victories, it’s the combination of those with the SC loss”, Long said of North Carolina.
Notre Dame, whom Clemson defeated October 3, dropped to No. 8 after falling to No. 7 Stanford. 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. The only thing left is conference championships games, bowl games, and of course the College Football Playoff. The committee could easily make an argument for MSU moving to No. 3 in the rankings ahead of the Sooners. The Gators’ chances were all but doomed last week with a lopsided loss to Florida State.
The Big Ten representative in the Rose Bowl will be either the loser of Michigan State-Iowa or Ohio State.
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“Protocol clearly says there can be more than one team from a conference in the final four”, Long said, “so that’s definitely a possibility”. But it would be hard to ignore a win over the nation’s No. 1 team. After last season, perhaps no team would get more benefit of the doubt from the committee.
