The committee will reveal the four-team Playoff field with its final ranking at noon ET Sunday.
Advertisement
With only conference championship weekend left to determine the entrants in the College Football Playoff, the committee has released its week 13 College Football Playoff Rankings, which again leave the Wisconsin football team out of the top 25. They still have an outside opportunity to make the College Football Playoff.
There could be a few changes near the top of the AP poll following Saturday night’s conference title games. Clemson remains number one overall, followed by Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa and Michigan State.
Heading into the weekend, Notre Dame’s opponent will likely be one of the loser of the Big Ten Championship (either Iowa or Michigan State), Ohio State, Florida State, North Carolina or Houston. Ohio State might be looking to get in, but without a conference championship game to play in (Iowa vs Michigan State in the Big Ten) they shouldn’t be getting in. The Tigers are the No. 1 team in the latest college football rankings while the Tar Heels are sitting at No. 10 going into the week. Preference is only given to the team seeded No. 1.
Alabama is playing against Florida for the SEC championship and many see the Crimson Tide as the heavy favorites, while Clemson takes on North Carolina.
Advertisement
The other end of the college football rankings has more consternation than the top as the Bowl bubble finally burst. “And the fact that most of the discussion and debate was above them and below them would indicate that their position at three was pretty solid with the committee”. But Clemson struggled with SC last week, finally winning 37-32. “The committee debated long and hard about the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams”. From a committee? How do they make their decisions anyway? I just don’t understand how the committee can rank Northwestern a spot ahead of MI, a team that beat it 38-0. The Cougars have the highest ranking of the non-Power Five schools, and they face 22nd ranked Temple in the AAC Title Game on Saturday. The top four teams qualify for the two semifinal games, which will be held at the Orange and Cotton bowls on December 31. Alabama is the better team, and if not for five turnovers against Ole Miss it would be undefeated and ranked No. 1 like it was a year ago. Stanford’s argument to be included over Ohio State would be their conference title, and their argument over a potential ACC Champion North Carolina would be their superior strength of schedule (18 vs. 62). However, Alabama still has to beat Florida in the SEC Championship game this week and a second loss could be enough to push them out of the top four. The problem for North Carolina is that, even though it would own a conference title if it upsets Clemson, it hasn’t done much else to build its case.
