Notre Dame might need more than luck to make College Football Playoff

The dip for the Irish was enough to make fans think they need help to make the four-team playoff.

Despite being regarded as the best conference in the country, the SEC may not even have two teams ranked inside the top-15.

Then again, the humanization of the selection process might benefit them because the committee can take into account the Wolverines’ last-second loss to MI State. If it wins this game, many believe the Sooners will have a spot in the championship tourney. So here are your rooting interests over the next couple of weeks based on last night’s rankings.

Then the No. 8 Buckeyes could absolutely jump back into the top four next week by beating No. 10 MI.

Baylor plays Friday in Fort Worth against TCU (6:30 p.m., ESPN) in the Horned Frogs’ final game of the season. You would have to think a win over Oklahoma State would ensure a spot in the playoff for the Sooners at this point. But it seems that they are being held to a different standard than some of the other teams, like Iowa for example.

When Ohio State was unbeaten, it looked as if the final spot would come down to Notre Dame or the Big 12 champion. Notre Dame also fell from No. 4 to No. 6 after the Irish slipped past a three-win Boston College team, 19-16.

“Oh, we are?” he said, continuing the charade. It’s pretty simple: Defeat TCU and Texas. If they both win this week, this debate will be decided in a playoff quarterfinal at the Big Ten Championship Game.

Oklahoma State’s players remained positive, realizing there is still plenty of work left to do. Just last season, the Tide were ranked as the nation’s best team entering their playoff semifinals.

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. Losses by those teams would assure the ascent, however.

After struggling to beat Florida Atlantic on Saturday, SEC East champ Florida dropped from No. 8 to No. 12. “You walk around campus and you go out to eat and people are talking about it. Anywhere you go in town, it’s being talked about, so there’s not much that needs to be said inside our locker room”.

Oklahoma plays at Oklahoma State this weekend in a matchup of 1-loss teams. Everything – that being the Buckeyes’ past and present conference dominance – was flipped upside down. Not any more. The Irish will now need Oklahoma to lose at Oklahoma State Saturday (a distinct possibility), MI State to lose at home to Penn State (doubtful), Iowa to lose at Nebraska (a possibility, but doubtful)… and to annihilate the Cardinal in Palo Alto (not likely).

Baylor picked up a 45-35 win over the Cowboys despite starting quarterback Jarrett Stidham, Seth Russell’s replacement, leaving the game due to injury at halftime.

Barring an unlikely loss by Clemson or Alabama – and this admittedly has been the season of unlikely events – Notre Dame will spend Saturday not just playing Stanford but cheering for Oklahoma State and Penn State, hoping an upset clears its path back into the top four. But the Big Ten could also be looking at missing the playoff if it wasn’t for Northwestern. Next up are SC, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Stanford and TCU. Florida at No. 12 is the second-highest ranked school from the conference behind No. 2 Alabama. Neither is Wisconsin, which Bama beat in the season opener.

No. 14 North Carolina (10-1) has almost no chance at the postseason.

The nightmare chaotic scenario for the committee is if Clemson loses to North Carolina at the ACC Championship Game.