Iowa moves up to No

While the voters love them, it’s a risk they better not try to mess with. It goes with the history of the program.

Notre Dame’s biggest win, in the eyes of the committee, may be its only loss, by two points to No. 1 Clemson on the road in a monsoon. Spartan fans should root for Oklahoma State to beat them this weekend.

The top 4 looks different this week as the Big Ten had a big shakeup with Michigan State knocking off Ohio State. Another matchup that could lead to a CFP shakeup is the Bedlam game between Oklahoma and No. 11 Oklahoma State.

Michigan: Still in the running, although barely. Add in the strong Michigan State Defense against a weak Penn State offense. And a win over a potentially undefeated Iowa would probably be enough to vault them back into the playoff. MI (9-2, Big Ten) 11.

We told you they were far from done when they lost to Nebraska, and here we are. Starting at the very top and working the way down, just like the CFP committee does it, start with the top team and flow everything from there.

Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish exits the field after the game …

No. 7 Baylor and No. 9 Stanford round out the top 10 teams in this week’s poll. A loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl knocks Alabama out of contention. Losses by those teams would assure the ascent, however.

The committee has made it clear that it simply does not respect North Carolina.

#14 North Carolina: Their resume doesn’t have near the power of the Michigan State’s, but beating Clemson in the ACC Championship would be a great addition.

#8 Ohio State: MSU’s strength of schedule will be impacted both positively and negatively with The Game, regardless of the outcome. Clemson wins by 17. The Sooners’ loss was to Texas and with the Big 12 now using head-to-head tiebreakers, they would be the conference’s one champion.

Alabama plays at Auburn, Florida State is at Florida, and the Big 12 Conference offers Baylor at TCU as well as Oklahoma at Oklahoma State.

Baylor plays Friday in Fort Worth against TCU (6:30 p.m., ESPN) in the Horned Frogs’ final game of the season.

UCLA Bruins @ USC Trojans (USC -3) – USC with the home crowd behind them. “We feel like we need to win another game to still be considered”. “We still have to play the game against Stanford and it’s going to be the exact same”.

A win against OU will surely impress the committee, with how impressive OU has looked down the final stretch.

But most importantly, for a team juggling health and correctable flaws all season to finally transcend all that and reinvent itself. They can now consider themselves on the radar. But we can’t rule them out at this point. Florida (10-1) 13. Florida State (9-2) 14. Wouldn’t it just be more fun with them in the Playoff?

In the good ole’ SEC, there are a bunch of fun matchups, but unfortunately none of them really matter in terms of who will be in Atlanta next weekend. No way would the Sooners play in the Cotton Bowl as the fourth-ranked team; that would be too much of a homefield disadvantage for the No. 1-ranked team. The nightmare scenario for the Big Ten would be Iowa losing at Nebraska, and then winning the conference. The closeness of that loss is something that’s discussed.

Which is exactly what both Ohio State and MI are hoping for. The Hawkeyes already earned their bid to the Big Ten title game, but they have one more regular season match up left.

Just a few days ago, the struggle was to understand how any Big 12 school, and therefore the University of Oklahoma, might reach the College Football Playoff.

Toledo, from the Mid-American Conference, is ranked 24th, while Temple is 25th.

Notre Dame’s win against Pittsburgh could also help them.