Hours before the College Football Playoff Selection Committee evicted Notre Dame from its No. 4 perch in the rankings Tuesday night, Brian Kelly lamented the lingering flaw that finally caught up with the Irish. Thanks to last week’s win against Ohio State, the Spartans are one win away from playing for the Big Ten title and perhaps two wins away from a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Advertisement
The league left out of last year’s playoff, and one without a championship game, still has three teams – Oklahoma (No. 5 AP), Baylor (No. 7 AP) and Oklahoma State (No. 9 AP) – alive in the championship chase. With wins this weekend, Iowa and Michigan State would meet in the Big Ten championship game in what would amount to a CFP play-in game. So the team that ended up facing Miami was Nebraska – which lost its final regular season game 62-36 to Colorado and wasn’t even the Big 12 champion.
Notre Dame figured to be a thorn in the Sooners’ flesh, since the Irish beat Texas 38-3 in September and OU achieved the impossible and somehow lost to the Longhorns 24-17 in October. Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, a Heisman Trophy hopeful, passed concussion tests and is expected to play.
Notre Dame vs. Stanford and Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma could be two of the most two important games of the season.
Playoff Outlook: Very good, assuming Michigan State can win this week against Penn State and Iowa (No. 3 AP) can finish its surprising undefeated regular season with a victory at Nebraska.
Second, Michigan State needs to lose to Penn State. Topping the nation are the Clemson Tigers, who remain unbeaten with a 9-0 record. Oklahoma is in better position.
Several games this weekend will have major ramifications in the CFP rankings.
#12 Florida: Beat Florida State. The most interesting thing about this contest might be how Ohio State responds to not only last week’s loss, but the comments made by running back Ezekiel Elliott following it. Elliott had issues with the playcalling and coach Urban Meyer said he would get more involved. After all, ask TCU about being ranked No. 3 the week before the final rankings last season.
“It certainly has an impact because Baylor continued to play well with the third-team quarterback”, Long said.
What if Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma, and Baylor beats TCU and Texas? Notre Dame also struggled throughout its game with Boston College at Fenway Park, but wound up with a 19-16 victory. They can end up as Big 12 champions or co-champions, but it might not be enough to gain the favour of those 12 making the decisions about the Final Four. All concentration by the Notre Dame team must completely be on Stanford and no other “noise”. The Spartans were one spot ahead of Mississippi State heading into Championship Week and both teams were left out of their respective conference title matches. The Sooners will play at Oklahoma State on Saturday with a chance to win the Big 12. The Irish’s playoff hopes may very well rest with their final game against No. 9 Stanford. Ohio State (CFP: No. 8) 11.
This leaves 6 teams (provided a Cowboy win and a Baylor loss) between Oklahoma State and a postseason berth.
While Michigan would probably be the only two-loss team with a chance to make the Playoff, it would still be a long shot. The nightmare scenario for the Big Ten would be Iowa losing at Nebraska, and then winning the conference. But Ohio State would be in the heart of the discussion.
Florida: The Gators are just at number 12 right now, but they have one loss.
Oklahoma State rushed for eight yards in last week’s loss to Baylor….
Advertisement
It finally appears the Big 12’s backloaded schedule is an important talking point in the selection committee meeting room. Beating the Seminoles in convincing fashion wouldn’t automatically get Florida into the playoff, but it would serve as a great prelude to the SEC Championship Game, where Florida could cement its playoff candidacy. Navy is 9-1 for the first time since 1963 and the Mids have not started 10-1 since 1905.
