Big 12 Hopes for Playoff Push

No matter who plays for the Big Ten title, the Michigan-Ohio State victor is headed for the playoff. With the College Football Playoff being plunged into chaos last week, Oklahoma and West Virginia have a golden opportunity on Saturday. The one constant is, well, Alabama.

I don’t think anyone saw that loss to Georgia coming, and now the SEC is officially a one-team conference.

The Cardinals didn’t take care of business against the Cougars, their all-too-familiar bugaboos haunting them in a disastrous way as Houston – now officially college football’s pre-eminent giant-slayer – stormed to an easy 36-10 win and ended Louisville’s playoff hopes altogether. They’ll change that if they can continue their strong play at home with good production from QB Sefo Liufau and TB Phillip Lindsay. All kidding aside, the Cardinals’ only path to the ACC championship game is a win by the Demon Deacons against the Tigers. As you can see from the college football highlight reel above, Louisville was a touchdown behind after the first Houston play from scrimmage.

“I think our guys, they embrace the underdog role”, Houston coach Tom Herman said. That is primetime television and there isn’t another player that could keep Nick Saban up at night more than Jackson.

Oklahoma at West Virginia, 8 p.m., 6ABC: The victor gets a leg up on the Big 12 race while hoping to favorably influence the College Football Playoff committee.

Now, it appears the omission of the Pac-12 could find another, blurrier justification. I’m not expecting an upset here, but even another close win by the Tigers could hurt their chances at making the playoff.

If Michigan beats Ohio State, the Wolverines would go to the Big Ten Championship game.

Boise State jumping an undefeated team is interesting but the committee is likely taking a lot of stock in the Washington State victory that Boise State earned back in September. The best mid-major team gets the final playoff bid.

According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, Michigan has a 98-percent chance to beat the Hoosiers (5-5, 3-4 Big Ten) in Ann Arbor this weekend and has a 41 percent chance to win the last two regular season games.

Louisville never recovered from those first two plays and their first half was easily the worst 30 minutes of football they have put together all year. In 2014, the playoff’s debut year, it was the Big 12.

For Notre Dame, it’s been a disappointing season.

MAC: None. Western Michigan is undefeated, but hasn’t budged in the rankings simply due to their weakness in scheduling.

Washington State [11-2] Conference Title.

The NCAA gave the fans what they want and it was the right idea. Clocking in at No. 15 in the first CFP Rankings of the year, the idea of climbing 11 spots in just over a month was a daunting task.

Should Colorado get to that point, the Buffs’ résumé would stack up quite well since it would include this game, a win against Utah next week and a title game victory. What the committee needs to do is expand the amount of teams in the playoffs to possibly 6-8.

Then the BCS was able to get to match-up of the top two teams, but there was controversy for over a decade as to how those finalists were chosen. After that, Alabama must go through the motions of the Southeastern Conference championship game against whoever emerges from the Least — uhh, make that East — Division. Seriously though, is anyone as good as Bama?

Lamar Jackson is about as close as you can get to being a lock for the Heisman Trophy but he has one last test left in a mid-week classic at Houston.

Sun Belt: None. No surprise here, even with 8-1 Troy. It’s the fewest points they’ve scored since a loss at North Carolina in 2011. The Buckeyes were outside of the Top 4 last week before their 62-3 win over Maryland. What I mean by that is I wouldn’t be surprised with the result either way.

The more probable “tough” committee decision scenario could be created by winners winning out.