With one week left, no change in committee’s top four

This head-to-head debate may roar on Sunday, or it may be moot: Alabama and Clemson could win – should win, maybe – and make the committee’s four-team field a no-brainer. Michigan State handled Penn State’s struggling offense easily, and lit up the scoreboard themselves, 55-16.

Now, while these rankings aren’t the final set, they do give us all a good idea of what the CFP Selection Committee is thinking heading into this final weekend of the regular season.

The CFP rankings are used to fill out the rest of the New Year’s Six Bowls, which means Florida State’s rise has it in position to play in a major bowl for the fourth consecutive year. Even with a win, the Tar Heels will likely need a lot of help from teams to get in.

Possibly more revealing than the top four this week was the placement of teams on the bubble, namely No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 North Carolina.

Iowa plays Michigan State for the Big Ten title Saturday in what effectively is an elimination game for the playoffs.

At this point, Ohio State has done all they can, and their only loss on the season came last-second at the hands of Michigan State. We saw a Clemson team struggle against a SC team, that same SC team that beat North Carolina at the beginning of the year.

North Carolina and Clemson had five common opponents, including SC, and both beat the other four fairly soundly.

Oklahoma, the No. 3 team, is finished at 11-1, as the Big 12 does not have a conference title game.

The Buckeyes are No. 8, but at No. 9 is Stanford, which just beat Notre Dame.

The top five teams stayed the same from last week.

The rankings that will actually determine which four teams will play for a national title, and which ones are headed off to bowl games of a lesser stature. The playoff picture is likely to change only if Alabama or Clemson lose.

Selection committee Jeff Long declined to address hypothetical scenarios that could shake up the top four spots after conference championship games. With the strength of the Big Ten this season, it’s become a foregone conclusion that the victor of the conference will move onto the playoffs.

Michigan State and Oklahoma were the only top six teams that pulled off impressive victories this past weekend. UNC, like Ohio State last season, comes into Saturday as an underdog, and while the Tar Heels winning would be a bigger upset, it wouldn’t be an unthinkable one. Ohio State (11-1) 7. North Carolina only moved to No. 10 this week when it seemed like a move as high as No. 8 was possible. This is a team that’s getting better by the week. Although, if Stanford impresses in its Pac-12 Championship game against USC (ranked No. 20), it could potentially leapfrog Oklahoma.