Bob Lutz: Clemson, Iowa aren’t among nation’s best four teams

The final college football playoff rankings and the New Year’s Six bowl pairings will be announced Sunday.

With only conference championship weekend left to determine the entrants in the College Football Playoff, the committee has released its week 13 College Football Playoff Rankings, which again leave the Wisconsin football team out of the top 25.

So there are two berths into the College Football Playoff nearly assuredly accounted for.

There was no change in the top five places in the poll from last week, making it appear the lack of movement resulted from unanimity in opinion.

Iowa plays Michigan State for the Big Ten title Saturday in what effectively is an elimination game for the playoffs.

Clemson (12-0) is still No. 1, followed by Alabama (11-1), Oklahoma (11-1) and Iowa (12-0).

So far two teams are locked in, or as locked in as possible: Oklahoma and the Big Ten Champion, either undefeated Iowa or 11-1 Michigan State.

If those teams win their conference championships they still should be in line to get some big bowl games, but everyone is looking to get into the CFP.

No team with two losses has the opportunity Stanford does.

Clemson has wins against two teams in the committee’s top 10, Notre Dame at 8 and Florida State at 9.

Next up for Alabama is the SEC Championship Game against a floundering Florida team.

Iowa is an underdog to Michigan State, while Ohio State and Stanford are hot on their tails. Given the Spartans are ranked No. 5 and playing the No. 4 team in the country, that seems unlikely. The committee would be hard pressed to omit a 1-loss champion from a Power-5 conference, Naysayers will cite North Carolina’s 62nd ranked strength of schedule as an area for concern, but a win over consensus #1 Clemson would certainly silence some of them. The Irish dropped from fourth to eighth; Florida State and North Carolina moved up to Nos.

A Stanford defeat, coupled with Clemson sustaining its first loss, handles North Carolina’s Notre Dame dilemma. Some analysts argued that either Alabama or Oklahoma, which each won convincingly Saturday, could ascend to the No. 1 spot this week.

Here are five thoughts following the final CFP rankings of the regular season. The semifinals will be hosted at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl on December 31, 2015.

“We’ll just play whoever we get put in front of us”, senior OU defensive end Charles Tapper said this week.

Pretty solid set of games, although purely out of intrigue, I’d rather see Baylor in the Sugar Bowl against an SEC team just to see Art Briles’ team go up against an SEC defense.

After a one-week hiatus, USC returns to the CFP rankings at No. 20, fresh off a victory over crosstown rival UCLA.