Oklahoma safely No. 3 in rankings

Tuesday’s ranking release basically laid out the template for the four-team playoff: Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and the Big Ten championship game victor, Michigan State or Iowa, are headed toward semifinal matchups on New Year’s Eve in the Orange and Cotton bowls.

Iowa (12-0) and Michigan State (11-1), who face off in the Big Ten Championship Saturday, were fourth and fifth in this week’s rankings, respectively. The Big 12 doesn’t play a championship game and the Sooners have locked up the league title. Checking in behind the Big Ten duo are Oregon, Oklahoma State and Florida. At.

Michigan State’s only loss came to Nebraska, who the Hawkeyes just beat on Friday.

I’m not so sure one of Ohio State’s opponents, 3-10 Hawaii, which went 0-8 in the Mountain West, is much better than North Carolina A&T, which went 9-2 and tied for first in the MEAC.

Clemson has wins against two teams in the committee’s top 10, Notre Dame at 8 and Florida State at 9.

As a wannabe litigation attorney for the Ohio State football program, I can’t advise the Buckeyes strongly enough to stop talking. Ohio State, last year’s champion, could also make a repeat appearance in the bracket if both the Tigers and Crimson Tide lose. Only Michigan (5) played more while Northwestern, USC and LSU played the same number as Notre Dame. There’s also a very real chance that the Big Ten champion will jump Oklahoma. If this ranking holds up, Clemson would play Iowa and Alabama would play No. 3 Oklahoma (11-1) in the semifinals. Now it becomes a North Carolina, Clemson, Ohio State debate. A win over Clemson would do wonders for North Carolina’s resume, but it’s still fair to wonder how the committee would view the Tar Heels (whether fairly or not) against a two-loss Pac-12 champ Stanford, a one-loss Ohio State, and even a one-loss Clemson team that it would have just beaten.

As a result of Stanford’s placement ahead of North Carolina, a Cardinal win would appear to eliminate the Tar Heels-regardless of the ACC title-game outcome.

Folks, they lost on a failed two-point conversion to No. 1 Clemson and lost on a field goal as time expired against now No. 7 Stanford. Those two teams are the highest ranked Group of Five teams this week, and it would be fair to assume the victor of the game would represent the Group of Five in a New Year’s Six Bowl. The winners will play for the national title on January 11 in Glendale, Arizona. OR 9-3 17. Oklahoma State 10-2 18.

“And then on the other side of Oklahoma, we had great debate about Iowa and Michigan State, and again, similarly, I thought from the conversation in the room that a vote may have put Michigan State in front of Iowa”.

In November of 2012, Ohio State announced several schedule updates, one of which was moving a 2015 North Carolina game to 2018.