All four teams that moved into the rankings this week have already been there previously this season.
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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. With a tough match-up with the Cardinal looming, the team knows they need to do a better job of closing out games. If Michigan State is better, they will emerge from the title game in Indianapolis on December 5th with a trophy and a berth in the final four.
While there’s a high probability that we get that scenario and once again the folks running the playoff are popping champagne on New Year’s as they see sky-high ratings, there’s also the chance for chaos to reign supreme.
Four teams dropped out of the rankings after losing, including LSU and Utah, which were both ranked in the top five earlier this season. A win over Penn State would send Mark Dantonio’s team to the Big Ten title game, where it would face Iowa. Way too much can occur in other games this week. It wasn’t until the conference championship that the Buckeyes were rewarded with a Playoff spot.
Florida State being ranked ahead of North Carolina continues to baffle me and is one of those unjustifiable things that makes you wonder if the committee really has any idea what it’s doing on the whole.
No. 14 North Carolina (10-1) has almost no chance at the postseason. If both win, that sets up a Big Ten championship game with unbeaten Iowa against Michigan State at 11-1. For this exercise, the Huskers pull off the upset and knock Iowa from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Michigan State plays Penn State on Saturday and Iowa is at Nebraska on Friday.
Elsewhere around the Big Ten, behind Ohio State’s No. 8 ranking, MI check in at No. 10 – giving the Big Ten three top 10 teams – and Northwestern comes in at No. 17.
7-Baylor at 19-TCU (Fri.): The Bears are down to their third-string QB, and the Frogs’ Trevone Boykin won’t be anywhere near 100 percent if he plays.
Clemson (11-0), 2. Alabama (10-1), 3. Oklahoma State only suffered their first loss of the season this past weekend and would love nothing more than to ruin Oklhoma’s season. The Irish’s playoff hopes may very well rest with their final game against No. 9 Stanford. Notre Dame has a lone loss at Clemson and can score its most impressive win of the season Saturday at Stanford. Beat Auburn? Stay on course for the playoffs. An Alabama loss to the Tigers, coupled with a Mississippi win over Mississippi State, would put the Rebels in the championship game – likely ending any national championship hopes for the SEC as well. Should Temple, Navy and USC win this weekend, the Irish will have beaten four division champions and will guarantee they’d have beaten two conference titlists (AAC and Pac-12), with a two-point road loss to a possible third (Clemson in the ACC ).
Several games this weekend will have major ramifications in the CFP rankings.
That has Big 12 fans understandably wondering if the league is setup for another fall from No. 3 even if the Sooners take care of business in Stillwater. A win would help its strength of schedule, which has been depleted thanks to disappointing seasons from Texas, USC and Georgia Tech, but the Fighting Irish can not win a conference championship next week because if their independent status, which might, in the end, hurt them.
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The SEC Champ, if it has only one loss, is in, whether it is Florida or Alabama.
