College Football’s Can’t Miss Games For Rivalry Week

Four teams dropped out of the rankings after losing, including LSU and Utah, which were both ranked in the top five earlier this season.

Oklahoma and Iowa made the most significant jumps in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night.

The Sooners join No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama and No. 4 Iowa, which also jumped Notre Dame in this week’s Fab Four rankings.

Week Twelve of the college football season eliminated three more undefeated teams, as third ranked Ohio State was outplayed by Michigan State at home, Oklahoma State couldn’t keep up with or stop the Baylor Bears and high-powered Houston imploded against upstart UConn.

This Saturday, Oklahoma travels to No. 11 Oklahoma State and Notre Dame plays at No. 9 Stanford.

That won’t mean anything if the Sooners can’t beat their rivals, Oklahoma State, but they will do just that because they are the most complete team in the offense-happy Big 12. Should Michigan State win against Penn State, their Big Ten Championship match-up against Iowa will basically be a play-in for the College Football Playoff. Last week’s No. 24 USC team lost, so that win doesn’t look almost as strong now for Notre Dame.

The Utes were No. 3 midway through October, but are 2-3 since.

“They have performed at a high level since then, so they’ve overcome that loss with their play on the field and the success they’ve had and the wins they’ve accumulated, with now six wins over teams with”.

Elsewhere around the Big Ten, behind Ohio State’s No. 8 ranking, MI check in at No. 10 – giving the Big Ten three top 10 teams – and Northwestern comes in at No. 17. And if Florida, number 12 at the moment, beat Alabama in the SEC championship game? “Notre Dame’s (19-16) win against Boston College this week and not really playing well the last few weeks really didn’t add much to the resume”.

ACC – North Carolina upsets Clemson in the title game: This one is unlikely, but certainly not out of the question. After all, ask TCU about being ranked No. 3 the week before the final rankings last season. These are the teams that still have a shot at sneaking in and it will be interesting to see how the Playoff Committee goes about ranking these teams. Meanwhile in Stillwater, Oklahoma pulls out the win over Oklahoma State but in unconvincing fashion. While a win in the Big Ten title game isn’t a given, a matchup with Michigan State is the most likely scenario and the Spartans are dealing with an injury to QB Connor Cook.

Obviously McCaffrey and Kevin Hogan are super fun – and Stanford’s losses aren’t bad – but the Pac 12 kind of cannibalized itself this year.

The problem now for Notre Dame is it has one game left against No. 9 Stanford. Following the Mids and rounding out the top 20 areNorthwestern, Oregon, Ole Miss, TCU and Washington State. They both need either an Oklahoma loss (which OSU directly controls, but Baylor does not), and a Notre Dame loss. 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. Ohio State basically has no chance unless they reach the title game, and then they need help. Iowa (11-0) 5. Michigan State (10-1) 6.