While teams like Notre Dame and Alabama play tougher schedules, Baylor’s none conference included the likes of Lamar and SMU; not exactly world beaters.
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Clemson University retained the top spot in the College Football Playoff ranking released Tuesday night.
Top 10 teams Iowa, Baylor, Stanford, Oklahoma State, LSU and Utah trail Notre Dame.
With its convincing win over LSU on Saturday, Alabama moved up to No. 2 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings.
“Iowa has shown consistent improvement, they’ve shown consistency on both sides of the ball, (and) while they’ve not been flashy, they’ve been consistent on both sides of the ball”, College Football Playoff committee chairman Jeff Long said on the ESPN CFP ranking show. It’s worth noting Florida, number 11 in the rankings, who’ll play in the SEC championship game against Alabama (probably), but a loss against Florida State (#16) could cost them a potential playoff spot, even if they win the SEC championship game, although that probably depends on what other teams do.
If Navy is in the mix, the committee would announce the pairing for one of the New Year’s Six bowls – either the Fiesta or Peach – and one participant in the other New Year’s Six bowl, holding the other spot in that game for the Group of Five rep. Clemson is the only team in the top 25 with two wins over teams ranked within the top 16.
“I don’t think the ranking means anything”, Saban said. Notre Dame broke into the top four. But that’s unlikely, since it’d require three undefeated Power Five teams (Clemson as the third), which college football history shows is improbable. “500 record teams, so that does create a difficulty”.
Irish head coach Brian Kelly indicated Tuesday that he has no problem with a one-loss team being ranked ahead of an undefeated squad.
“You can argue Stanford’s position if you want, but there is no defense for Baylor still being ahead of Oklahoma State”. Plus, if Alabama were to lose a game, everything is still on the table for LSU to win the SEC. But I don’t know whether Notre Dame or Florida would feel better about its shot. If JT Barrett starts consistently producing on offense in the next coming weeks, it may silence a few doubters.
Long said the Big 12’s back-loaded schedule has made it hard to evaluate the conference.
I suppose Ohio State could if it got nicked by 2 points by Iowa (assuming the Hawkeyes win the Big Ten West) in the fourth overtime of the league championship game at Indianapolis after it had beaten MI State and MI. “‘Oklahoma State had a good win, ‘ said Long, but, ‘That’s the first piece of real strength that we’ve seen from them'”.
An ACC showdown brings the No. 1 team in the country to Syracuse. Or the Irish faithful might say, you can’t leave us out we are Notre Dame.
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The Fighting Irish moved up one spot. The high-scoring Bears have yet to play a ranked team, but that changes next week when they embark on a three-game stretch against Oklahoma (No. 12 in the CFP rankings), Oklahoma State (8) and TCU (15).
