Notre Dame shrugs off drop in College Football Playoff rankings

This will be the end of the road for college football in Delaware. When Jeff Probst extinguishes the torches of those voted off the island, that’s it, they are done, gone, removed from our existence.

Translation: Yes, we’re giving the Tide credit for beating all those teams that turned out to be not almost as good as their early rankings. Oklahoma is not the only team that has something at stake in the outcome.

The same might be said of Iowa and Michigan State. See ya. Not so fast my friend.

The Sooners’ perch marks the loftiest of the season by any league team in four weeks of rankings by the CFP selection committee. We argue, scream, yell, tweet, call, rant or Snap Chat why our teams are deserving or being robbed. If Baylor crushes the Longhorns and finishes 11-1, it’ll have two excellent road wins over Oklahoma State and TCU, a not-bad loss to Oklahoma, and if OU loses to OSU, it’ll be the One True Champion in the Big 12.

Rounding up the top four are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Winning against Oklahoma State to win the Big 12 doesn’t clinch anything for the Sooners, and the same goes for Notre Dame, even if they pull off an impressive win against Stanford.

For the first time this season, the Sooners made the College Football Playoff top 4.

Take away Iowa, which travels well, but wouldn’t bring the TV ratings desired, and any combination of four of those five teams would be ideal for the CFP financially. The Spartans beat the Buckeyes 17-14 on Saturday to put Ohio State’s chances of a repeat national title in serious jeopardy. Final Score: Clemson 32, SC 19. I was half right.

Two key points for the 9-2 Wolverines: The fact that they moved above Oklahoma State is significant. They’d have to work their way over Baylor and Notre Dame, but a clear-cut, one-loss conference champion probably has a stronger case. Baylor faced a good Kansas State team at home, posted a solid win, but still was being dragged down by its nonconference schedule and a loss at West Virginia, which finished in the middle of the Big 12. The number is at 71 right now, and there are 14 teams in need of one more victory, including four Big Ten squads – Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

(12) 4% selected Navy Midshipmen (Kangaroos) if they win out against Houston and in the American Conference title game.

Third, quit hating on Iowa. If Michigan State is better, they will emerge from the title game in Indianapolis on December 5th with a trophy and a berth in the final four. Then it beat Baylor and reached No, 7 in all three. Watch for my prediction on the game on Friday morning. The Seminoles can only play spoiler this year, but a ten-win season hangs in the balance. Does not having a conference championship game help or hurt (Notre Dame retains its independence proudly)? First off, the Irish don’t have the extra game to make a last and lasting impression with the committee on championship weekend. There’s still a question whether quarterback Connor Cook will start Saturday’s game.

BEST OF REST: Football: No. 18 Ole Miss at No. 21 Mississippi State (4:15 p.m., ESPN2 (31)), No. 13 Florida State at No. 12 Florida (4:30 p.m., ESPN (30)). Does a blueblood (Notre Dame) get special consideration? That might be enough to elevate the Briles gang to the fourth spot.

Even though the Big 12 has been under ranked for most of the CFP committee’s rankings, a conference championship, although one determine in the regular season, will still be important to the committee in their discussions. 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. Based on the past three weeks-narrow wins over Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Florida Atlantic-it’s hard to expect much from Florida.