There is still much to play as the college football season winds down.
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Oklahoma moved into third and Iowa was fourth in the College Football Playoff rankings as Notre Dame slipped to No. 6 on Tuesday night. Zaire’s replacement in DeShone Kizer has been more than competent as the team’s starting signal-caller. Baylor’s schedule, as everyone has mentioned, is among the easiest in the country, but they’ve been lights out against everyone except the Sooners, when they were playing a true freshman quarterback. Oklahoma (10-1, Big XII) 4.
Help needed: The Sooners appear to be a lock with a win at Bedlam on Saturday, but they might need some style points to feel secure. 3 and 4, respectively, behind top-ranked Clemson and No. 2 Alabama.
Path to the Playoff: Beat North Carolina State today and Clemson in the ACC championship. Though all other Power Five conferences have at least one team ranked higher, Stanford still has an outside shot at the Playoff – statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight gives the Cardinal a 16 percent chance to make it. How realistic is Stanford’s shot at making the Playoff? No. 1 Penn State (11-0) and No. 3 Oklahoma (10-1) faced each other in the Orange Bowl for what was advertised as the national title game. Iowa could trip at Nebraska. The Fighting Irish have overcome a plague’s worth of injuries to get to 10-1, and boasted wins over No. 15 Navy and No. 25 Temple and ones over eight-win Pittsburgh and talent-rich USC, still a potential Pac-12 South champion. Last week Oklahoma defeated TCU 30-29 at home, and only one team ranked ahead of them last week – Ohio State – lost.
Big 12 – Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma, TCU beats Baylor: The Bears stands to inherit the Big 12 title should Oklahoma State win, but with Jarrett Stidham now out for the regular season with a broken bone in his ankle, a win over TCU on the road is far from guaranteed. Last season’s affair, as Sooner fans hesitate to recall, went down to the very end, with Oklahoma State tying the game with an ill-fated 92-yard punt return for a touchdown following a punt do-over by OU set up by a defensive penalty called against Oklahoma State that was not declined by the Sooners’ coaching staff. The game ultimately was sent to overtime, and the Cowboys prevailed 38-35 in the extra session. But, really, which teams can get it done? He pointed to the consistency Notre Dame has shown all season against a schedule that will feature four games against teams now in the playoff rankings.
Amid all the uncertainty surrounding the College Football Playoff, one thing is crystal clear: The loser of the Notre-Dame Stanford game won’t be part of the final four.
#6 Notre Dame at #9 Stanford – I think Stanford is overrated at #9 when they have two losses just like Northwestern. It turned out to be a good day for the Big 12 and Big Ten conferences.
The only chance for the Fighting Irish is by virtue of a definitive win over Stanford and a Navy victory.
The Alabama Crimson Tide is the only SEC team represented in the top 10.
Alabama, ranked second, has a challenge this weekend at Auburn in the famed Iron Bowl. The top four teams qualify for the two semifinal games, which will be held at the Orange and Cotton bowls on December 31. Does a conference championship game help or hurt (Stanford is in the Pac-12 Ball next week)? With both teams now outside the top four even a late-season win against a top-flight opponent might not be enough.
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What if Notre Dame beats Stanford this weekend? 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.
