CFP committee: Alabama hasn’t challenged Clemson for No. 1

Notre Dame’s metrics are almost identical to the previous week, despite a close game against a struggling Boston College team. The Irish’s playoff hopes may very well rest with their final game against No. 9 Stanford. However, the Tar Heels, who haven’t lost since September 3, could cancel Clemson’s parade by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. A win in that rivalry game would allow the Irish to breathe a bit easier the following week as they sit idle and numerous other contenders play in conference title games. “This is all just preliminary stuff in which they’re evaluating teams and as long as we’re in a position to try to crack it at the end of the year, we’ll be fine”. That might clinch a spot for the Irish because they (a) are Notre Dame and (b) have a better loss, on the road at Clemson, than any Big 12 team. If Michigan State loses to Penn State, the victor of the Ohio State-Michigan game will go to the Big Ten Championship.

Let’s take a look at who deserves to be in the top four after week 12. Ohio State (CFP: No. 8) 11.

No. 5 Michigan State led the Hoosiers just 28-26 with 13 minutes left in the game before pulling away for a 52-26 win. That’s the biggest obstacle, but far from the only one. The No. 5 Michigan State Spartans need to beat Penn State in the season finale to make the Big Ten championship game. If they beat Notre Dame and win the Pac-12 against UCLA/USC, are they going to be in the playoffs despite their two losses?

3 in last week’s rankings, fell to Michigan State, 17-14, on a last-second field goal in Columbus on Saturday.

Oklahoma’s best victories (at Tennessee, at No. 7 Baylor and vs. No. 19 TCU) are better than Notre Dame’s (vs. No. 15 Navy, vs. USC, at No. 25 Temple, at Pittsburgh). Baylor also has a December 4 game against Texas (4-6) in Waco. Teams now ranked ahead of Notre Dame on the other hand, can. And basically, the committee appears to clearly like Oklahoma better than Notre Dame at the moment.

Alabama plays at Auburn, Florida State is at Florida, and the Big 12 Conference offers Baylor at TCU as well as Oklahoma at Oklahoma State. The victory pushed the Bears up from No. 10 to No. 7 in this week’s poll. The victor gets the West division title, spot in the American championship game and inside track to New Year’s Six bowl.

Last Week’s Top 10 (Saturday Results) 1. The win in Week 5 against Ole Miss stands out, but the loss to an LSU team that has now dropped three straight would be a big check against the Gators.

Florida would be a two-loss SEC champ.

The Cowboys took a significant hit to their chances with the loss at home to Baylor on Saturday.

The Sooners’ perch marks the loftiest of the season by any league team in four weeks of rankings by the CFP selection committee.

“Oklahoma’s entire body of work, with another win against a Top 25 team (in TCU) this week and what it has done over the last few weeks when added in vaulted them into that No. 3 spot”, Long said. They can now consider themselves on the radar.

So what can the Big 12 do?

As soon as the seconds ticked off the clock this past Saturday, what seemed like dreams of an undefeated season and a trip to the only postseason that matters were dashed, or so we thought.