For the past three weeks, Doomsday has presented the ultimate nightmare playoff scenario for how each of the Power 5 conferences could get left out of the top four.
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No. 3 Iowa (minus 1) at Nebraska: Last chance for the Hawkeyes to mess this up… Notre Dame (CFP: No. 6) 5.
Notre Dame (10-1) also plays its last game of the season Saturday, a possible résumé-builder against Stanford, which is ninth in the rankings.
Michigan State was slotted fifth and Notre Dame dropped out of a potential semifinal spot to sixth. Right now, these are the teams, besides Ohio State, that are capable of finishing with one loss and/or winning a conference championship. The picture will further crystallize this week, especially if Notre Dame can knock off Stanford.
Oklahoma, Long said, essentially muted its loss to Texas by its impressive play recently. If the answer is no, enjoy the incredible rage that will break out when Jeff Long is forced to explain why the committee decided the Gators were one of the four best teams. I dogged you last week, but this time around you did exactly what you’re supposed to do and got all over Florida for that game against FAU, and you correctly punished Notre Dame for looking bad at times in the win over Boston College.
The College Football Playoff selection meeting room is all business in Grapevine, Texas. The Horned Frogs were without star quarterback Trevone Boykin and wide receiver Josh Doctson.
Unless the Irish can do to the Cardinal what the Buckeyes did to the Badgers, it would be hard for the committee to explain reversing course on the Sooners at this point. It will be interesting to see how they take into account certain team’s losses and wins. And Oklahoma, which looked shaky in a home win over TCU without Trevone Boykin.
What if Stanford beats Notre Dame? And basically, the committee appears to clearly like Oklahoma better than Notre Dame at the moment. The No. 5 Michigan State Spartans need to beat Penn State in the season finale to make the Big Ten championship game.
The top four teams, as ranked by the 12-person selection committee, will be placed in the Orange and Cotton Bowls and meet on December 31.
The biggest change of the week is the Ohio State Buckeyes dropping out of the top four with their loss to the Michigan State Spartans this past weekend. The Hawkeyes lost a top-25 win when Wisconsin dropped from the rankings; plus, they have only beaten No. 16 Northwestern.
Temple (9-2) will be the East representative if it beats UConn next week.
Clemson is “solidly” ahead of Alabama.
The playoff committee released a top four of Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Iowa. There wasn’t much interest in shifting the order. Clemson; 2. Alabama; 3. When comparing two teams, common opponents is one barometer. The Crimson Tide play at Auburn this week.
Last season TCU finished with a weak Iowa State team.
But most importantly, for a team juggling health and correctable flaws all season to finally transcend all that and reinvent itself.
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“We’re in a situation where I don’t think you’re going to eat it until it’s done”, Briles said.
