Notre Dame, Michigan still alive. Here’s how

Again, we begin with this important public service announcement: These rankings are meaningless. The weekend schedule finds 18 games involving every team in the AP Top 25, with seven contests matching ranked teams.

Here what Long had to say to ESPN’s Rece Davis about the consideration given to the Sooners in the discussion and voting this week by the Playoff selection committee by clicking on this article and video. Because it’s going to sting more than the Oklahoma answer. Quarterback Baker Mayfield is expected to return after an injury last week, but the Cowboys plan to make it tough on him. The interesting question is who gets in if they lose. Oklahoma’s junior quarterback has been the catalyst in the Sooners’ surge during the second half of the season. Then if Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma.

Yeah, Oklahoma escaped TCU, just barely, when Sooners defensive back Steven Parker batted down a two-point conversion with 51 seconds left.

The only other path to the playoffs assuming Oklahoma wins out would be for some chaos in the Big 10 or SEC. Instead, a Stanford win will knock the Irish out of the playoff picture while still putting the Cardinal behind any one-loss Big Ten team.

That clearly changed the complexion of the game.

A number of things can happen with these final four but this we know: If any of the four win out, they’re in. After beating now-No. 11 Oklahoma State on the road, Baylor could make some massive noise even through it’s down to the third-string quarterback. Oklahoma is set to be the conference’s one true champion.

An Oklahoma loss and a Notre Dame loss could leave Baylor (9-1) and Stanford (9-2) vying for the last playoff spot as conference champions. The committee jumped them into the top 4 this week.

Michigan State plays Penn State on Saturday and Iowa is at Nebraska on Friday.

Baylor, at No. 7, also has a bit of hope to cling on to as well, but needs a lot of help, plus a win over TCU, to keep its slim hopes alive.

Clemson and Alabama remained Nos.

Following the Ohio State’s loss last week, they have dropped from third to eighth while Michigan State made a significant leap from ninth to fifth place.

Is the committee consistent in its treatment of unimpressive wins? Maybe. Florida dropped from eight to 12 after a awful performance against Florida Atlantic, but it doesn’t matter. And the answer was: Yes. However, the Sooners are in the same spot as TCU last season. But finding that many teams with the required six wins may be unfeasible. More likely, it showed the committee was paying attention to how teams were playing – yeah, the eye test. The fact that Florida still has just one loss this year is testament to the job that Jim McElwain has done. They will face the No. 9 Stanford Cardinal in their season finale. It’s clear the committee has not been impressed.

Playoff Outlook: Very good, assuming Michigan State can win this week against Penn State and Iowa (No. 3 AP) can finish its surprising undefeated regular season with a victory at Nebraska. The Fighting Irish now have wins over No. 25 Temple and No. 15 Navy, along with good victories over Pitt and USC – each probably better than No. 24 Toledo. Switzer campaigned long and loud for a week that his OU team should easily leapfrog BYU because of strength of schedule.

Clemson remained No. 1, followed by Alabama at No. 2. The committee was supposed to start from scratch each and every time they meet, so just because a team is in one spot and wins, that doesn’t guarantee a move up.