Alabama stays at No. 2 in CFP rankings

Alabama will play No. 18 Florida for the SEC crown, Clemson will face No. 10 North Carolina in the ACC, and seventh-ranked Stanford will take on USC in the Pac 12.

The Iowa-Michigan State victor apparently is in, so any change to the playoff lineup probably would have to start with a loss by Clemson (Atlantic Coast Conference) and/or Alabama (Southeastern) in their conference-title games. Last year, Ohio State jumped from No. 5 to No. 4 after a 59-0 rout of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game. There is no Big 12 Conference championship, so while it’s not possible for them to trip up, the Sooners also don’t have the chance Michigan State has to impress the committee one more time.

Michigan State is looking for its second B1G title game win in three appearances.

(10-1) Oklahoma (#6 in the A&H Rankings): Win at Oklahoma State, and have either Clemson or Notre Dame lose.

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.

Maybe there’s a fourth in No. 4 Iowa, should the Hawkeyes fall to No. 5 Michigan State for their first loss.

The CFP committee has talked about its favoring of conference champions in their selection of teams to the playoff and a year ago all four teams who made the playoffs were conference champions. So although these weekly rankings provide insight into the committee’s thinking, they’re still glorified mock drafts, especially until the committee places weight on conference titles.

To me, if they beat USC again, they get a spot in the playoff if Alabama or Clemson loses.

The final rankings will be released Sunday after the conference championship games. If not, then the committee would consider No. 6 Ohio State or No. 7 Stanford.

The Tar Heels have won 11 in a row since losing their season opener to SC 17-13, one of the last good memories Steve Spurrier had as the Gamecocks’ head coach. “And then we saw Alabama play an Auburn team in a rivalry game and win that game, so those are two more pieces to those résumés that allowed us to look deeper into that No. 1 and No. 2 ranking”. The Vols are now a ranked team, on a hot streak, and have a fan base that historically travels well. Committee chairman Jeff Long said the committee considered slotting the Crimson Tide over No. 1 Clemson.

In the case of the Tar Heels, Long continued to cite their poor strength of schedule, a Week 1 loss to 3-9 SC and victories over two FCS opponents as reasons holding them back. But even after crushing poor Florida, they’re still just sitting around waiting to get that inevitable “New Year’s Day” bowl in Orlando or Tampa.

The Sooners remained at No. 3 in the updated CFP rankings, within the projected four-team playoff bracket. That team is a 3-9 team.

Alabama, he said, is 8-1 against teams with winning records but has not played a team now in the top 10. Ranked fifth, they are the first team up should someone in the top four stumble. The loss to Texas earlier on has meant a hard ceiling on just how high the Sooners can go – at least in terms of the resume.