In College Football Playoff Ranking

For two straight weeks, Hocutt has mentioned that being “a team the coaches wouldn’t want to play” as a positive for a team when ranking it.

Ohio State held onto the No. 2 seed despite a struggle against Michigan State, while Michigan held fast at No. 3 following a sloppy, 20-10 win against Indiana.

Their regular-season finale hasn’t seen this kind of hype in a long time, in part because the Buckeyes have won four in a row and 12 of the last 15 in the series, not counting a 2010 victory that was vacated because of NCAA violations.

Wisconsin will host 8-3 Minnesota and a win will send the Badgers to the Big Ten Championship Game and keep their playoff hopes alive. Four of the top seven teams in this week’s rankings are from the Big Ten, including No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 MI, who square off Saturday in Columbus (noon ET, ABC/ESPN App).

The committee’s rankings are a weekly snapshot of each team’s “body of work” to that point, so there’s still the possibility that there would be committee members in the room who would value Penn State’s conference championship and head-to-head win more than Ohio State’s impressive resume, which would include four wins against CFP top 25 opponents. The drama for Washington fans is whether one of several two-loss teams with better schedule strength might vault a one-loss Washington team in the final accounting. The Bedlam victor will have a chance but probably needs an upset in one of the other conference championship games.

The release of Tuesday’s poll means Clemson has been ranked in every College Football Playoff Poll top 25 since the format began in 2014.

Last week: Beat Chattanooga 31-3.

5 p.m. ET: Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual: No. 6 Wisconsin vs. “It’s the big game – the championship game”. If nearly unthinkable, Alabama could lose to Auburn or Florida, if not both. The Crimson Tide have been on a different level for much of this season, however, and should stay undefeated heading into the SEC Championship in Atlanta.

We’ll go with No. 16 Nebraska.

“We were obviously aware of the conditions in which that game was played, but continue to be very impressed with Ohio State”.

Michigan’s path is similar. That strategy may not work when MI is on the road at the Horseshoe, where it faces Ohio State for the Big Ten East Division title and a chance to play for the Big Ten Championship. Lose a close one at Ohio State, and it hinges too much on Michigan State beating Penn State. IN has recorded 15 sacks and 52 tackles for loss over the last five games.

Washington (10-1) jumped to No. 5, Wisconsin (9-2) is up to No. 6, Penn State (9-2) moved to No. 7, and Oklahoma (9-2) moved to No. 8. A win against Ohio State would scuttle a potential controversy. These teams only play 12 or 13 games. SC (6-4); December 3 ACC championship game. The National Championship game will be played in Tampa, Florida on January 9, 2017 on ESPN. But first the Tigers have to take care of SC – which has won four of its past five games – in Death Valley. And with the selection process subjectively picked by humans who take into account the eye-ball test, Alabama has practically cemented itself to play for a national championship pending horrific, but unlikely, blow-out losses in its next two games.

Behind the Utes, the Pac-12 has two consecutive representatives with Washington State at No. 23 and Stanford at No. 24.

MI has home wins over No. 9 Colorado, No. 7 Penn State and No. 6 Wisconsin. If Washington loses another game, whether it be to Washington State or the Pac-12 South champion, which will be either Colorado or USC, it makes the decision easy: The Big Ten champ should get in.